on the rocks
Idioms-
Ruined, spoiled, as in Six months after the wedding, their marriage was on the rocks . This expression, alluding to a ship running aground on rocks and breaking apart, has been used figuratively for other disasters since the late 1800s.
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Served over ice only, as in He always drinks whiskey on the rocks . The “rocks” here are the ice cubes. [Mid-1900s]
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Destitute, bankrupt, as in Can I borrow next month's rent? I'm on the rocks . This usage, from the late 1800s, is heard more often in Britain than America.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Now renamed the People's Party, their hopes that they would improve on their 2023 performance were dashed on the rocks of the old-style patronage networks which have dominated provincial politics in Thailand throughout its modern history.
From BBC
Their marriage was on the rocks, and on the day she went missing Arlene had been due to meet a solicitor to discuss a £250,000 divorce.
From BBC
But Nim got another load and then another, till she had twenty fat coconuts heaped on the rocks, and then she hurled them into the water one by one.
From Literature
And the longer she stood on the rocks, the hotter they got, so she had to hop on one foot and then on the other, and then she had to run out of the smoke and away from the heat to the very top of the mountain.
From Literature
When she had all the coconuts on the rocks, Nim loaded ten into each bag and tied knots across the top so they couldn’t escape.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
