house of cards
- a structure or plan that is insubstantial and subject to imminent collapse, as a structure made by balancing playing cards against each other: The scheme is so overly complicated that it's likely to prove to be just another house of cards.
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Origin of house of cards
First recorded in 1900–05
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
shaky, decrepit, insubstantial, tacky, rickety, feeble, chiffon, shallow, gossamer, wobbly, frail, slight, defective, delicate, diaphanous, fragile, gauzy, inadequate, infirm, meagerExamples from the Web for house of cards
Contemporary Examples
It is a little house-of-cards cube whose four sides are lead plates, three inches by three, that each weigh one quarter pound.
house of cards
- a tiered structure created by balancing playing cards on their edges
- an unstable situation, plan, etc
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with house of cards
house of cards
A weak and fragile structure, plan, or organization, as in Her scheme to reorganize the school sounds like another house of cards, or Jerry built his entire business on what turned out to be a house of cards. This metaphoric expression alludes to the structure made by balancing playing cards against one another. [First half of 1600s]
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.