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Sink or Swim

To be responsible or get failed or success for one’s own actions without involving anybody

Etymology:

  • Off course a person will sink if he does not know swimming and if he swims then he is successful. In old times there was a pretty strange kind of custom in which people especially women were thrown in the water who were suspected of being an evil witch. She was considered innocent if she got drowned in the water and if she floated she was guilty. In 1300, Geoffrey Chaucer used the expression “float or sink” in his works.
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The mother yelled at the child either sinks or swim in exams and to leave her alone.

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Submitted on February 25, 2019

Additional definitions for 'Sink or Swim':

sink or swimTo fail or succeed, no matter what.
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اغرق او اسبح

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Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to Sink or Swim

swim with sharksloose lips sink shipskitchen sinkswim with sharkseverything and the kitchen sinksink like a stoneswim upstreamI can't swimswim like a fishfor crying in the sink!sink one's teeth intoeverything but the kitchen sinkswim with the sharksswim like a brick

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    "Sink or Swim." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Dec. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/sink-or-swim_45025>.

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