Word.ws English Dictionary

circles the drain

circles the drain is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 circles the drain

What is circles the drain the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Circles the drain is the third-person singular simple present indicative of circle the drain.

Words near circles the drain in the dictionary

  1. circles of Apollonius
  2. circles of fifths
  3. circles of friends
  4. circles of life
  5. circles of Willis
  6. circles the drain
  7. circles the field
  8. circles the wagons
  9. circles up
  10. circlest
  11. circlet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circles 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.

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