Word.ws English Dictionary

circling the drain

circling the drain is the present participle and gerund 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 circling the drain

What is circling the drain the present participle and gerund of?
Circling the drain is the present participle and gerund of circle the drain.

Words near circling the drain in the dictionary

  1. circley
  2. circline
  3. circlines
  4. circling
  5. circling back
  6. circling the drain
  7. circling the field
  8. circling the wagons
  9. circling up
  10. circlingly
  11. circlings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circling 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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Cite this entry: “circling the drain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/circling_the_drain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.