sword of Damocles

American  

noun

1. any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster.

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Sword of Damocles British  

noun

1. a closely impending disaster

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sword of Damocles Idioms  

1. Also, Damocles' sword. Impending disaster, as in The likelihood of lay-offs has been a sword of Damocles over the department for months. This expression alludes to the legend of Damocles, a servile courtier to King Dionysius I of Syracuse. The king, weary of Damocles' obsequious flattery, invited him to a banquet and seated him under a sword hung by a single hair, so as to point out to him the precariousness of his position. The idiom was first recorded in 1747. The same story gave rise to the expression hang by a thread.

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Etymology

Origin of sword of Damocles

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

But even then, the rare earths situation could stay unresolved, “hanging like a sword of Damocles over many companies’ heads,” Gave says.

From Barron's

He said many veterans now effectively had a "sword of Damocles hanging over them again".

From BBC

Hackford recalls feeling the sword of Damocles hanging over his head when he phoned King, who replied, “I wish I’d thought of that.”

From Salon

She described it as a "sword of Damocles over my head for three long years".

From BBC

By that point, the TV veteran had been unemployed for more than six months, and his children’s private school tuitions were looming over him like the sword of Damocles.

From Los Angeles Times