out of commission

1. Not in working order, unable to function. For example, The drawbridge is out of commission so we'll have to take the tunnel. This idiom originally referred to a ship that was laid up for repairs or held in reserve. Similarly, the antonym, in commission, referred to a ship armed and ready for action. The latter term is also used in more general contexts today, as in My car's back in commission now, so we can drive to the theater. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

The Palisades fire put three campuses out of commission in the nation’s second-largest school system.

From Los Angeles Times

“This one’s gone, that one’s gone and this little guy’s almost out of commission. You see where it’s coming apart right here?”

From Los Angeles Times

I thought I was gonna be out of commission for 18 months or two years — that’s what I was told.

From Los Angeles Times

He’d heard about the bus shortage — roughly three-quarters of the department’s inmate transport buses were out of commission — and wondered if that kind of large-scale evacuation was really possible.

From Los Angeles Times

Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered an investigation into the loss of pressure and the lack of water available from a reservoir in Pacific Palisades that was out of commission for repairs.

From Los Angeles Times