drive a stake through its heart

English

Etymology

Refers to a common way of killing vampires in fiction.

Verb

drive a stake through its heart (third-person singular simple present drives a stake through its heart, present participle driving a stake through its heart, simple past drove a stake through its heart, past participle driven a stake through its heart)

(idiomatic) get rid of, destroy permanently or stop talking about
- 1984, Peter Benjaminson, Death in the Afternoon: America's Newspaper Giants Struggle for Survival, Andrews, McMeel & Parker, →ISBN:
  The Chandlers also were interested in retaining the family fortune, not squandering it, and the Mirror-News was losing $2 million a year. If, the Chandlers thought, they could kill the Mirror-News and drive a stake through its heart, they would be much better off.
- 1999, Fred Siegel, Urban Society, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, →ISBN, page 125:
  "You can't reform ODOT," he says wearily, "you can only drive a stake through its heart."
- 2000, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Final Review of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (Treaty Doc. 105-28): Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, October 7, 1999, Volume 4, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 28:
  We hear great debate about how this is a bad treaty and we should defeat it and drive a stake through its heart, but what, then, should we do?
- 2011, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means, Impediments to Job Creation: Hearing Before the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, March 30, 2011, U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 116:
  We can't tinker with this tax code monstrosity or try to reform around the edges. The only thing we can do with this hideous beast is kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it, and hope that it never rises again to terrorize the American people.