Correctly using idiomatic expressions makes you sound more like the natives no matter what language you are trying to speak.  Learning them can be tricky, though, because you often can’t guess the meaning of an idiom from the words.  Trying to remember idioms as random sets of words is not very interesting or productive.  The easiest way to learn and really remember idioms is to learn about their history.  When you understand where they come from, it’s a lot easier to remember what they mean. There are some idioms that are so old that no one is really sure where they came from, but you can find clear written records of many of the idioms we use today. 

In this blog post, I am going to cover some nautical idioms in English.  Even though English is spoken in many parts of the world today, the birthplace of English is an island.  England has been dependent on the sea for food, transportation, and trade since ancient times.  So, it’s no surprise that there are a lot of idioms related to ships and sailing.  Here are a few:

Dead in the Water

“To be dead in the water” means that something is unable to move, either physically or metaphorically.  Often anything that is “dead in the water” is also unlikely to be successful in the future.  This expression refers to a ship that cannot move.  Some sources say that it refers to a sailing ship when there is no wind, while others say that it refers to a ship whose engine is broken.  The site www.phrases.org.uk shows a quote using “dead in the water” where there is no reference to ships:

A proposed shopping center for Port Angeles appears to be “dead in the water” at present, due to the inability to purchase needed property.

The Port Angeles Evening News, January 1966

In recent years, this expression has been used to show that some activity is stopped and is most likely doomed to failure.

Three Sheets to the Wind

Someone who is “three sheets to the wind” is very drunk.  You might also see this expression as “three sheets in the wind.”  The meaning is the same.  The word “sheets” in this expression has a different meaning than the usual one.  They are not the sheets that we put on a bed.  “Sheets” for a sailor are the ropes or chains that hold the corners of a sail to a ship.  A large sail normally has four sheets.  If three sheets are loose and blowing in the wind, the sail will move back and forth in an unpredictable way, just like a drunk person.  Charles Dickens used the expression figuratively in Dombey and Son (1848): “Captain Cuttle, looking . . . at Bunsby more attentively, perceived that he was three sheets in the wind, or in plain words, drunk.”

To Go by the Board

When something “goes by the board” it is thrown away or is irretrievably lost.  A board is the side of a ship.  If something goes by the board, it is not on the ship anymore.  It has fallen over the side and is probably lost forever.  This expression is often used with ideas or projects that are abandoned because they are not practical.  The Farlex Dictionary has this example:

Our research will certainly go by the board if the government doesn’t agree to continue financing it.

I hope that knowing a little about the history of these nautical idioms will help you to remember them and use them correctly. 

References

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. (2012). Retrieved May 16, 2023, from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/dead+in+the+water The Free Dictionary by Farlex

Ammer, Christine (2013) The Dictionary of Clichés. Retrieved May 17, 2023, from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/three+sheets+to+the+wind

Flavell, Linda, and Roger (2011) Dictionary of Idioms and their Origins, Kyle Books, London, UK

The Phrase Finder, https://www.phrases.org.uk/, Accessed May 16, 2023

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