play Russian roulette

Cultural

To gamble foolishly on a risky or potentially ruinous business. The expression refers to a deadly game in which a participant loads a revolver with one bullet, spins the cylinder, and fires at his own head: “If you drink and drive, you're playing Russian roulette with your life and the lives of others.”

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.

"For governments to allow private entities to essentially play Russian roulette with every human being on earth is, in my view, a total dereliction of duty," said Russell, a prominent voice on AI safety.

From Barron's

You had to be a certain kind of person, after all, to show up at the home of a has-been writer, to disable Arete, to play Russian roulette with your soul.

From Slate

“Mr. Baldwin chose to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun without checking it and without having the Armorer do so,” the lawsuit alleges, according to Law & Crime.

From Washington Times

Ms Allred said Mr Baldwin "chose to play Russian roulette when he fired a gun without checking it and without having the armourer do so in his presence".

From BBC

“Mr. Baldwin chose to play Russian roulette when he fired a gun without checking it, and without having the armorer do so in his presence,” Mitchell’s attorney Gloria Allred said at a news conference.

From Seattle Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023