dead in the water

English

Pronunciation

Audio (General Australian): (file)

Adjective

dead in the water (not comparable)

(nautical) Stationary with respect to the current, having no means of propulsion.
- 2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 22:59 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)‎^[1], archived from the original on 7 November 2022:
  Unaware of her compatriots' fate, Aaron Ward found herself staring down the gun barrels of Kirishima, a fight that did not end well for the destroyer, which was soon dead in the water.
(figurative) Doomed; unable to succeed.
- 1981, Richard Maibaum, Michael G. Wilson, Ian Fleming, For Your Eyes Only, spoken by Frederick Gray (Geoffrey Keen):
  I'm afraid we have to inform the Prime Minister that Operation Undertow is dead in the water.
- 2004, Aline Brosh McKenna, Robert Harling, Laws of Attraction, spoken by Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore):
  Each case I handle convinces me further that marriage is dead in the water.
- 2021 June 16, Adam Morton, quoting Jacqui Lambie, “‘Dead in the water’: key crossbenchers reject Coalition demand to back new environment standards”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:
  Lambie said the crossbench had been clear it also wanted a better approvals process in place before the end of the year, but the minister’s reforms would be “dead in the water if she doesn’t tighten up the standards”.
- 2021 September 9, Jamie Grierson, “Patel’s plans to send migrant boats back to France unworkable, union says”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:
  Priti Patel’s plans to send back small boats carrying migrants in the Channel are already “dead in the water”, an immigration workers’ union has said.

Translations

without inertia

Finnish: tuuliajolla (fi)
French: sans erre (fr)