on the skids

1. In the process of decline or ruin, as in If she quit now, her career would be on the skids. The skids here are runners such as those on a sled, enabling one to go downhill quickly. [c. 1920]

Example Sentences

The infringements were small - between 0.07mm and 0.12mm on the skids on Norris' car and between 0.04mm and 0.26mm on Piastri's.

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To be “on the skids” was to be destitute.

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With Trump back in the White House and the economy on the skids, Democrats will surely brush off their familiar playbook and seek to turn the governor’s race into a referendum on the unpopular president.

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Blake was convinced that art had been on the skids since the mid-16th century, when worldly Titian and the Venetian painters rose to prominence, so he set about trying to put things right.

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But Logan Sargeant’s rookie season with Williams has been seemingly on the skids ever since, with a series of expensive crashes and dismal results that have some wondering if that future is careening toward a quick end.

Read more on Seattle Times

Related Words

• calamity 
• catastrophe 
• crunch 
• difficulty 
• disaster 
• hard times www.thesaurus.com
• hardship 
• misery 
• misfortune 
• mishap 
• sorrow 
• suffering 
• trouble