🗓️ Idiom: Grasping at Straws (v)
💬 Meaning
- To try anything, even if it’s unlikely to work, because you are desperate.
- Trying different solutions to a problem that probably won’t work.
🧠 Example Sentences
- When none of the strategies worked, the team started grasping at straws.
- He was grasping at straws by suggesting random fixes without proper analysis.
- In the final meeting, they were clearly grasping at straws to save the failing project.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from the image of a drowning person reaching for straws (thin pieces of material), something with no real chance of saving them. It’s now used when people are trying desperate or unlikely solutions.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
The project was falling apart, and the team was __________ with last-minute, untested ideas.
Answer
grasping at straws
2. Choose the correct meaning of “grasping at straws”:
A) Trying a method that is proven to work
B) Taking careful, well-planned steps
C) Trying anything without confidence it will help
D) Giving up completely
Answer
C) Trying anything without confidence it will help
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“They were making desperate suggestions that probably wouldn’t solve the issue.” → Change the sentence using: grasping at straws
Answer
They were grasping at straws with suggestions that probably wouldn’t solve the issue.