desert a sinking ship

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

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desert a sinking ship

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

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 Randall Garrett

There is a saying to the effect that "rats desert a sinking ship"; and when Nick's hour for defeat arrived, even these hitherto admiring cronies threatened to turn their backs on him.

From The Chums of Scranton High Hugh Morgan's Uphill Fight by Donald Ferguson

It is a generally well-founded belief among sailors that rats will desert a sinking ship.

From The Story of a Strange Career Being the Autobiography of a Convict; an Authentic Document by Anonymous