clutch at straws

Nội Dung Chính

1. To make a desperate attempt to salvage a bad situation.

A: “But what about all those times I took the trash out when you hadn’t even asked me to?” B: “That has nothing to do with why you’re in trouble now, so stop clutching at straws.”

2. To consider positive suggestions or thoughts in a bad situation.

OK, you’re just clutching at straws now, fantasizing about a potential buyer when your house has been on the market for months.

straw

See also: clutch

clutch at straws

Fig. to continue to seek solutions, ideas, or hopes that are insubstantial.

When you talk of cashing in quick on your inventions, you are just clutching at straws.

That is not a real solution to the problem. You are just clutching at straws.

straw

See also: clutch

clutch at straws

mainly BRITISH or

grasp at straws

mainly BRITISH or

1. If you clutch at straws or grasp at straws, you try to do something that is very unlikely to succeed because you are desperate or have tried everything else.

This was a desperate speech, made by a man clutching at straws to retain his career.

I was probably grasping at straws in a search for a cure, but I thought I would give the therapy a go.

2. If you clutch at straws or grasp at straws, you try to find hope in a situation where there is no reason to feel hope.

By this time, Rosa’s behaviour was extremely strange and we were all very concerned. I told myself that at least she still had a job, but I was clutching at straws.

Note: This expression comes from the proverb a drowning man will clutch at a straw.

People are still clinging to the hope that something will happen — but I think it’s like a drowning man trying to clutch at a straw.

Note: The image here is of a drowning person who is desperately trying to take hold of anything to save himself or herself, even a straw. straw

See also: clutch

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

clutch (or grasp or catch) at straws

do, say, or believe anything, however unlikely or inadequate, which seems to offer hope in a desperate situation.

This expression comes from the proverb a drowning man will clutch at a straw , which is recorded in various forms since the mid 16th century.

straw

See also: clutch

clutch/grasp at ˈstraws

try all possible means to find a solution or some hope in a difficult or unpleasant situation, even though this seems very unlikely:

The doctors have told him that he has only 6 months to live, but he won’t accept it. He’s going to a new clinic in Switzerland next week, but he’s just clutching at straws.

grasp, straw

See also: clutch

grasp at straws, to

To make a hopeless effort to save oneself. The term comes from the ancient image of a drowning man clutching at insubstantial reeds in an attempt to save himself, and it often was put as to catch or clutch at straws. It appeared in print as early as the sixteenth century and soon was regarded as a proverb. Indeed, Samuel Richardson so identifies it in Clarissa (1748): “A drowning man will catch at a straw, the proverb well says.” An earlier usage is “We do not as men redie to be drowned, catch at euery straw” (John Prime, Fruitful and Brief Discourse, 1583).