desert a sinking ship

Idioms

Abandon a failing enterprise before it is too late. For example, After seeing the company's financial statement, he knew it was time to desert a sinking ship. This metaphoric expression alludes to rats, which leave a vessel when it founders in a storm or runs aground so as to escape drowning. It was transferred to human behavior by about 1600.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The first to desert a sinking ship is the first to discover the ship is sinking.

From Time Magazine Archive

If rats desert a sinking ship, mice teem over this one.

From Time Magazine Archive

It isn't only the rats that desert a sinking ship; so does anyone else who has any sense.

From A Spaceship Named McGuire by Garrett, Randall

He is deserting us as rats desert a sinking ship," Mrs. Doolan said positively; "and I am only surprised that he has the grace to feel a little ashamed of the action.

From Rujub, the Juggler by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)

It is no peculiarity of rats to desert a sinking ship; it is simply an inevitable precaution in a social system modeled as yet upon nature's cruel law of the survival of the fittest.

From The Grain of Dust by Phillips, David Graham

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023