sink or swim
A sink-or-swim situation is one in which we must save ourselves by our own means or else fail. The image is that of a person thrown into the water without a life preserver; he or she must swim or drown.
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Snuck Or Sneaked?You may have heard that snuck as the past tense of sneak is improper English, but does this designation hold water? Like leaked as the past tense of leak, sneaked was the original past tense and past participle for sneak, which means “to move in a stealthy or furtive manner.” Used as early as the late 1800s, snuck has become the standard variant past tense …
Nearby words
sinistrous, sinitic, sink, sink in, sink one's teeth into, sink or swim, sink through the floor, sinkage, sinker, sinkerball, sinkhole
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Idioms and Phrases with sink or swim
sink or swim
Succumb or succeed, no matter what, as in Now that we've bought the farm, we'll have to make a go of it, sink or swim. This expression alludes to the former barbaric practice of throwing a suspected witch into deep water, often weighted down. In case of sinking, the victim died; in case of swimming, the victim was considered in league with the devil and therefore was executed. A related idiom, float or sink, was used by Chaucer in the late 1300s; Shakespeare had the current form in 1 Henry IV (1:3): “Or sink or swim.”
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.