| 词汇 | grasping at straws |
| 释义 | Idiom grasping at straws 1. trying to find reasons to feel hopeful about a bad situation. She thinks he might still be interested because he calls her now and then but I think she's clutching at straws. 2. trying to find some way to succeed when nothing you choose is likely to work. Jerry, grasping at straws, searched the backup tapes from last week, looking for the missing files. grasp at strawsTo make a desperate attempt to salvage a bad situation. A: "But what about all those times I took the trash out when you hadn't even asked me to?" B: "That has nothing to do with why you're in trouble now, so stop grasping at straws." grasping at strawsFig. to depend on something that is useless; to make a futile attempt at something. John couldn't answer the teacher's question. He was just grasping at straws. There I was, grasping at straws, with no one to help me. grasp at strawsAlso, clutch at straws. Make a desperate attempt at saving oneself. For example, He had lost the argument, but he kept grasping at straws, naming numerous previous cases that had little to do with this one . This metaphoric expression alludes to a drowning person trying to save himself by grabbing at flimsy reeds. First recorded in 1534, the term was used figuratively by the late 1600s. |
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