sinking ship
Going down craft
A sinking ship is a vessel taking on water and going down.
The phrase appears most often figuratively: to abandon a sinking ship or be rats fleeing a sinking ship is to desert a failing enterprise before it collapses entirely.
The image suggests both the inevitability of failure and the self-interest of those who leave early.
- downfallSudden loss of power
- run agroundBecome lodged on seafloor
- failingFlaw in one's nature
- submergePlunge beneath liquid
- meltdownCatastrophic loss of control
dead in the water · collapse · lifeboats · doomed · breakdown · rats · drown · decline · decay · lost cause · capsizing · taking on water · iceberg · Titanic · going under · evacuation · failure · financial ruin
- sea lorekraken, mermaids, mermaid, sea serpent, sirens
- Untrustworthy Thingsbroken promise, fair-weather friend, snake in the grass, wolf in sheep's clothing, two-faced
- wreckagedebris, wreckage, rubble, remains, remnants
- death idiomsdead end, dead serious, dead wrong, dead tired, dead weight
- loss-makersmoney pit
- declinedecline, in decline, decrease, downswing, on the decline
sinking shiprising star
Emerging person of promise
success story · going concern · growth · success · rocket ship
sinking shipbandwagon
Surging popular cause
winning side · sure thing · hot ticket · the place to be · safe harbor
sink, ship, sinking, sunk, shipping, ships, shipment, sinks, shipwreck