abandon ship

English

Verb

abandon ship (third-person singular simple present abandons ship, present participle abandoning ship, simple past and past participle abandoned ship)

1. (nautical, literal) To leave or forsake a ship due to its impending doom.
   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 28:44 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     However, an 8-inch shell takes out what's left of Hoel's engines, and the ship is rapidly overwhelmed by incoming fire. The order to abandon ship is given ten minutes later after trading fire with a Tone-class cruiser, and, fifteen minutes after that, the ship rolls over and sinks, Hoel clearly not showing quite the same level of luck as Johnston.

2. (by extension) To leave a person or organization when things become difficult.

Translations

to leave or forsake a ship due to its impending doom

• Finnish: jättää laiva, jättää alus, hylätä laiva, hylätä alus
• French: quitter le navire (fr)
• Hindi: पोत छोड़ देना (pot choṛ denā), पोत छोड़ना (pot choṛnā), पोत त्यागना (pot tyāgnā)
• Japanese: 船を捨てる (fune o suteru)
• Korean: 배를 버리다 (baereul beorida)
• Portuguese: abandonar o navio
• Russian: отка́зываться от корабля́ (otkázyvatʹsja ot korabljá), оставля́ть кора́бль (ostavljátʹ koráblʹ), броса́ть кора́бль (brosátʹ koráblʹ), покида́ть кора́бль (pokidátʹ koráblʹ)
• Spanish: abandonar el barco
• Turkish: gemiyi terk etmek

to leave a person or organization when things become difficult

• Finnish: jättää oman onnensa nojaan (fi)
• French: quitter le navire (fr)
• Polish: dezertować impf

See also

• like rats from a sinking ship
• jump ship

References

• Christine A. Lindberg, editor (2002), “abandon ship”, in The Oxford College Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Spark Publishing, →ISBN, page 1.