English · Idiom Candidate

sinking ship

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A failing organization or situation

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

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Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a ship that is sinking

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company is a sinking ship after losing its major investors

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. 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.

Topics: Sea & boats

Common questions

What does “sinking ship” mean?

A failing organization or situation Literally: a ship that is sinking

Is “sinking ship” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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