Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 363. .
The idiom today is another nail in the coffin.
Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If a person
says that something is another nail in one's coffin,
it means it is another thing in a series of things. So it had to be a number of
things happening over time that could lead to one's downfall
or eventual failure. So they say. Yeah. Well that's
another nail in his coffin. I don't know how much longer he's going to last.
Something like that. You could also say that something
is the last or final nail in one's coffin. If it is something
that may finally destroy someone or
or something for good. So that's it. This was the last thing.
It's a little bit similar to you know, the straw that broke the camel's back
in a way. Let's continue. Of course, a coffin
is a box that contains a dead body. So of course if you've ever seen a coffin
you know, the top has to be nailed down. So
it takes a lot of nails going around to eventually completely
seal the coffin or at least in the old days it did.
I think uh now in modern times it mostly just kind of closes down and then
there might be something to lock it,. But in the old days they used to nail it
in. They had a lot of nails going all around.
So each nail you know, kind of finalized it or
you know came close to that. All right. Let's continue.
There are a couple of theories of the origin of this phrase which dates back
to the early 1800's. The first one is that it used to refer
to habitual drinkers of spirits and strong
alcohol. Well, you know , basically you were a
little bit of a like like an alcoholic maybe or somebody that
had a drinking problem. So you drank a lot. Okay.
At that time it was referred to as dram. Another word for spirits or whiskey.
Each drink they took was like another nail
in their coffin. That's the way it was actually referred to. So that's kind of
how the phrase got going. Another theory goes to the fact that in
the UK. You know, this is true even today. Cigarettes are sometimes referred to
as coffin nails. Yeah. I do remember seeing this.
some interviews with the Beatles referring to
that. They said that cigarettes are coffin nails.
And also suggest smoking may lead to one's death. So maybe every cigarette
you smoke is like another nail in the coffin.
Something like that. Probably the first one is a little bit more likely
because it's probably closer in dates to when we first started hearing the
phrase used, but you know, some people suggest that either one
could be the origin of this phrase. All right. Let's continue .All right. We got three
examples here. Here's the first one . His latest flop
is just another nail in a coffin in regard to his career.
Yeah. This could be a writer. This could be an actor. You know.
that maybe they had another film that failed or
something like that and their career is going down. A
songwriter could be a lot of things like that.
Number two. This rejection is another nail in his coffin.
All right. We can say that one as well. And the last one here.
The fallout from the corona virus lockdowns was the final nail
in the coffin for his business. So this is one with the final nail or the last
nail He had to declare bankruptcy. So
maybe he was having a lot of problems even before this came around,
but this just finished him off. He couldn't recover from this this. It was too
serious so his , his business was already leaning
towards failing , but this finished him off. It was the final
nail in his coffin. Okay. Anyway i hope you got it . I hope it was
clear. I hope it was very informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.