Word.ws English Dictionary

circle the drain

circle the drain verb: to be in a rapid decline or in a state of downfall, especially as leading to an inevitable utter failure or destruction.

Verb

circle the drain (third-person singular simple present circles the drain, present participle circling the drain, simple past and past participle circled the drain)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To be in a rapid decline or in a state of downfall, especially as leading to an inevitable utter failure or destruction.
    • Our emergency medical services are, nonetheless, circling the drain.1989 January 29, Brian D. Johnston, “L.A.'s Crippled Emergency Care:”, in Los Angeles Times, retrieved 17 Oct 2010
    • Presciently, the high-end Japanese bathroom-fixtures manufacturer Toto chose a time when the economy is circling the drain to launch its newest product—a $5,000 commode with a super-efficient flush.2008 October 10, Belinda Luscombe, “Just What the Economy Needs: A $5,000 Toilet”, in Time

Forms of circle the drain

third-person singular presentcircles the drain
present participlecircling the drain
past participlecircled the drain
pastcircled the drain

Questions about circle the drain

What does circle the drain mean?
Circle the drain means to be in a rapid decline or in a state of downfall, especially as leading to an inevitable utter failure or destruction.
What part of speech is circle the drain?
Circle the drain is a verb.
What is the past tense of circle the drain?
The past tense of circle the drain is circled the drain.

Words near circle the drain in the dictionary

  1. circle skirts
  2. circle strafe
  3. circle strafed
  4. circle strafes
  5. circle strafing
  6. circle the drain
  7. circle the field
  8. circle the wagons
  9. circle time
  10. circle times
  11. circle up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circle the drain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-circle the drain.ogg.

Cite this entry: “circle the drain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/circle_the_drain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.