walk the plank

Idioms  

1. Be forced to resign, as in We were sure that Ted hadn't left of his own accord; he'd walked the plank. This metaphoric idiom alludes to a form of execution used in the 17th century, mainly by pirates, whereby a victim was forced to walk off the end of a board placed on the edge of the ship's deck and so drown. [Second half of 1800s]

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Example Sentences

“All right. Walk the plank it is. But where do we go from there?”

From Literature

“Or perhaps they will make me walk the plank, as pirates do. Dear me, I ought to have learned to swim when I had the chance!”

From Literature

Change was inevitable and the right call was made for coach Matthew Mott, rather than captain Jos Buttler, to walk the plank.

From BBC

Jen Kiggans had the haunted look of a woman about to walk the plank.

From Washington Post

“It was a rowboat piloted by the ship’s Cubano cabin boy, Eduardo Leones. He found a cave. A place to hide the ship’s treasure so the British couldn’t seize it. He also didn’t want Dog Breath to find it, because the evil captain had made Eduardo’s father, Angel Vengador Leones, the real captain of the pirate ship, walk the plank after an ugly mutiny.”

From Literature