drop like flies

Idioms  

1. Rapidly collapse, die, or drop out, usually referring to a group rather than an individual. For example, The words were so difficult that the spelling bee contestants were dropping like flies. The simile like flies has meant “in large numbers,” as it does in this expression, since about 1600.

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Example Sentences

“Many of the companies are unprofitable when oil prices are under $50 per barrel. They will drop like flies over the course of the second half of the year if prices don’t move higher.”

From Washington Post • Mar. 6, 2020

Key people drop like flies at the worst possible times, like now at linebacker for Seattle.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 2018

I mean, look at us, we drop like flies.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2015

The film makes a fatal narrative flaw in that it exposes the counterproductive reality of Frank Castle’s war-on-crime and yet still expects us to root for him as innocent bystanders drop like flies.

From Forbes • Oct. 22, 2014

With the group's tank dead, everyone else begins to drop like flies.

From The Guardian • Jan. 31, 2013