Rats desert a sinking ship. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1150)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
People abandon a failing enterprise or situation
Literally: rodents leaving a sinking vessel
Examples
As the company's finances worsened, many employees left, proving that rats desert a sinking ship
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Rats desert a sinking ship. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1150)” mean?
People abandon a failing enterprise or situation Literally: rodents leaving a sinking vessel
Is “Rats desert a sinking ship. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1150)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.