“Down the drain” is an English idiom meaning something has been lost or wasted, often associated with money. Idioms acquire meaning through constant use and can refer to wasted hopes, dreams, or efforts.
“Down the drain” is an English idiom meaning that something has been lost or wasted. The meaning of the idiom comes from the fact that if something were to literally go down a drain, the object would not be possible to recover. There are many different ways that “down the drain” is used, although it is often associated with the loss of money. In other cases, it may refer to wasted hopes or dreams, or to efforts that prove futile.
Whenever a person uses a phrase that has a meaning somewhat different from its literal meaning, the phrase is known as an idiom. Idioms are common in the English language and acquire their meanings through constant use in everyday life. People learn meanings through usage by others, until the phrase takes on a meaning of its own separate from its literal meaning. One such idiom is the phrase “down the drain,” one of the more popular phrases used to indicate that something has been lost.
People often use this idiom when discussing an amount of money that has been lost or wasted. For example, a person might say, “We paid so much for that TV and it never worked right; it’s money thrown away.” The intent of the idiom here is to convey the fact that the money paid for television has been completely wasted.
On other occasions, people use this particular idiom to mean that something precious has been lost and cannot be recovered. For example, imagine someone saying, “Things are never going to work out for me, so all my hopes and dreams are falling apart.” The intent of the idiom here is to indicate that the speaker does not think he will ever fulfill the hopes and dreams he mentions. So, they’re essentially wasted on him.
This idiom can also be used in the context of wasted effort. Imagine someone saying, “All the work we put into it has gone down the drain.” In this case, the person wants to convey that whatever work has been done will not get done due to some circumstances. The exaggeration inherent in the idiom gives the sentence its color and meaning.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
