Word.ws English Dictionary

circled the drain

circled the drain is the simple past and past participle of circle the drain.

Meaning of circle the drain

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

Questions about circled the drain

What is circled the drain the simple past and past participle of?
Circled the drain is the simple past and past participle of circle the drain.

Words near circled the drain in the dictionary

  1. circle-strafed
  2. circle-strafes
  3. circle-strafing
  4. circled
  5. circled back
  6. circled the drain
  7. circled the field
  8. circled the wagons
  9. circled up
  10. circleish
  11. circlejerk

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circled the drain (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

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