clutch at straws
Seek unlikely salvation
To clutch at straws is to grasp at any slim hope when desperate, even one unlikely to help.
From the image of a drowning person reaching for floating bits of straw.
The phrase often appears as grasping at straws: The defense lawyer was clutching at straws, questioning witnesses about irrelevant details.
- fruitlessProducing no useful outcome
- graspingGreedy for wealth
- long shotUnlikely to succeed
- wild goose chaseHopeless pursuit of nothing
- fool's errandHopeless, pointless task
act of desperation · hopelessness · shot in the dark · futile · losing battle · ineffectual · despair · pointless · wishful thinking · denial · panic · magical thinking · blind faith · helplessness · anxiety · thin ice · frustration · cherry-picking