Word.ws English Dictionary

rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic is the present participle and gerund of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Meaning of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

Verb

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic (third-person singular simple present rearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic, present participle rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, simple past and past participle rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic)

  1. (idiomatic) To do something pointless or insignificant that will soon be overtaken by events, or that contributes nothing to the solution of a current problem.
    • All the new people want an office close to the President's. You should see them scramble. It's like fighting for a deck chair on the Titanic.1969 January 17, Nan C. Robertson, quoting Elizabeth Carpenter, “White House Memories Recalled By Mrs. Johnson's Press Aide”, in New York Times, page 18

Questions about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

What is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic the present participle and gerund of?
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic is the present participle and gerund of rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Words near rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in the dictionary

  1. rearranges someone's guts
  2. rearranges the deck chairs on the Titanic
  3. rearranging
  4. rearranging someone's face
  5. rearranging someone's guts
  6. rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic
  7. rearrangingly
  8. rearrangings
  9. rearray
  10. rearrayed
  11. rearrays

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (page history and authors); rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic (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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