grasping at straws
tryingtofindsome way tosucceedwhen nothing youchooseislikelytowork:
Wesearchedall thebackuptapes,tryingtofindthemissingfiles, but weknewwe were grasping atstraws.
tryingtofindareasontofeelhopefulin abadsituation:
Iknewmymotherwasdying, but I was grasping atstrawsanddenyingreality.
Examplesofgrasping at straws
grasping at straws
It has been replaced by alibis, scapegoats andgraspingatstraws.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
Is he not rathergraspingatstrawswhen he suggests that our contribution should be one frigate?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
He isgraspingatstrawsbecause he simply cites the views of others rather than producing hard evidence of malpractice.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
Let us hope that we are notgraspingatstraws.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
They aregraspingatstraws.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
I felt that he wasgraspingatstrawstoday and the level of intemperance said a great deal about his mindset and focus in the debate.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
However, by re-using an episode idea from 2002, it seemed to viewers like the creative minds behind the show were justgraspingatstraws.
From
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Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
- excepted
- excepted peril
- excepted-peril
- excepting
- exception
- exceptionable
- exceptional
- exceptional ability
- exceptional achievement
- exceptional athlete
- exceptional beauty
- exceptional case
- exceptional circumstance
- exceptional circumstance
- exceptional contribution
- exceptional contribution
- exceptional courage
- exceptional drought
- exceptional experience
- exceptional importance
- exceptional instance
- exceptionalism
- exceptional items
- exceptional-items
- exceptional leadership