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You are here: Home / Language / Where does the expression “on the rocks” come from and What does on the rocks mean?

Where does the expression “on the rocks” come from and What does on the rocks mean?

August 2, 2020 by Karen Hill

As used in American slang the respected and well-established phrase “on the rocks” has taken on a variety of interpretations.

They all relate to some form or another of dilapidation or ruin, however.

Thus a person “on the rocks” may be ruined financially or “busted”; or he may be suffering a physical or mental collapse or “off his hinges,” “minus some buttons,” “gone haywire.”

A marriage “on the rocks” is one that is about to be, or has been, broken up. A business or other venture “on the rocks” has failed or, at least, is in a desperate plight.

Figurative use in the sense of being destitute dates back some two hundred years, and was derived from the literal nautical sense of the condition of a vessel shipwrecked on a rocky coast.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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