Meaning
To resort to desperate remedies or arguments that have almost no chance of working, because no real options remain. Typically said of fading hopes - a weak legal argument, a last-minute plea, or an unlikely rescue plan. Informal and dismissive of the weak remedies or arguments being attempted. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The image is a drowning person seizing a floating straw. Sir Thomas More had the drowning man without the straw in 1534 ('A man in peril of drowning catchest whatsoever cometh next to hand... be it never so simple a stick'). John Prime's 1583 sermon first adds the straw: 'We do not as men redie to be drowned, catch at euery straw.' The verb 'clutch' appears in the New-York Mirror in 1832 ('as drowning men clutch at straws') and became the usual British form from the mid-19th century; 'grasp at straws' is a later variant, especially American. The underlying proverb 'a drowning man will clutch at a straw' was current throughout, and straw's standing as the emblem of worthlessness - as in 'man of straw' and 'not care a straw' - made the metaphor self-explanatory.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a drowning man will clutch at a straw
- catch at straws (earlier form)
- clutching at straws
- grasp at straws
Usage Examples
- Citing one favourable poll at this stage of the campaign is clutching at straws.
- The closing argument for the defence amounted to clutching at straws.
- She rang every hostel in the city, clutching at straws for a bed that night.