Wednesday, April 11, 2012

grasping for straws/grasping at straws: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, April 11, 2012

grasping for straws/grasping at straws
To grasp at straws is to make desperate but futile attempts to escape from a problem. The image is of a drowning person wildly thrashing about trying to find something to keep afloat with, madly grasping even a wisp of straw which is plainly incapable of doing the job. “Grasping for straws” suggests that the person is deliberately trying to find straws rather than blindly grabbing them.





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