dire straits

English

Alternative forms

• dire straights (misspelling)

Etymology

First use appears c. 1817. See cite below. The phrase stems from nautical terminology, where straits refers to narrow, treacherous passages of water between landmasses, posing serious navigation risks.

Noun

dire straits pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic) A difficult position or situation.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:difficult situation

   After being shipwrecked on the island, we were in dire straits.

   • 1817, John Keats, edited by H. Buxton Froman, The Complete Works of John Keats: Poems published in 1817, Volume 1, page xxxix:

     The painter inconsiderately enough borrowed £30 raised for him with difficulty by the poet, and when Keats was himself in dire straits, resented the expectation that it should be repaid.

   • 1929, Wilbur Henry Siebert, Loyalists in East Florida, 1774 to 1785, The Most Important Documents Pertaining Thereto, Volume 1, page 50:

     Scouts and Indians from the latter province made frequent raids into Georgia, carrying off cattle without which the Floridians would have been in dire straits for meat.

   • 2019 January 30, Amy X. Wang, “Pandora’s CEO Roger Lynch Exits As SiriusXM Takes Over”, in Rolling Stone‎^[1]:

     […] Pandora announced via press release that [Roger] Lynch — who has run Pandora since September 2017, taking it from dire straits to a profitable audio and advertising enterprise — will step down from the company once the deal officially goes through.

   • 2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 50:

     "I understand the country is in dire straits and has a £2 trillion national debt. […] "

Translations

difficult position

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 水深火熱 / 水深火热 (zh) (shuǐshēnhuǒrè)

• Dutch: in het nauw
• Finnish: vaikeudet (fi) pl, hankaluudet pl; ahtaalla (adverb: in dire straits); kiipeli (fi) (informal)
• French: mauvaise passe (fr) f
• German: furchtbare Notlage f, große Not f, schlimme Lage f
• Hungarian: szükséghelyzet (hu)
• Japanese: 四苦八苦 (ja) (しくはっく, shikuhakku)
• Norwegian: urent farvann n, store vanskeligheter
• Polish: tarapaty (pl) nvir pl, opały nvir pl
• Portuguese: apuro (pt) m, aperto (pt) m, saia justa (pt) (slang), maus lençóis m pl (informal)
• Romanian: situație disperată f
• Russian: отча́янное положе́ние n (otčájannoje položénije), бе́дственное положе́ние n (bédstvennoje položénije), больша́я беда́ f (bolʹšája bedá)
• Serbo-Croatian: u škripcu
• Spanish: gran aprieto
• Swedish: trångmål (sv)
• Turkish: darda

References

• “dire straits”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.