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when the chips are down

A difficult situation in which you are forced to decide what is important to you.
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• I'm not sure what I'll do when the chips are down.
• When the chips are down he always finds the courage to carry on.

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Submitted by JP03 on October 29, 2014

Additional definitions for 'when the chips are down':

when the chips are downWhen the pressure is on; when the situation is urgent or critical.
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عندما تنخفض الرقائق

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Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to when the chips are down

weigh downwash downwear downwrite downwater downwatered-downwater downwave downwrite downwhat's going downwear downzoom downwatered-downyou can't keep a good man down

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