sword of Damocles

noun

1. any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster.

Sword of Damocles

noun

1. a closely impending disaster

Word History and Origins

Origin of sword of Damocles¹

First recorded in 1810–20

Word History and Origins

Origin of sword of Damocles¹

see _Damocles

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

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

Read more on Barron's

That he didn’t settle for peace and quiet while Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and missile arsenal still loomed over Israel like a sword of Damocles?

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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

Read more on 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.”

Read more on Salon

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

Read more on BBC