catch at straws

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

At such times the mind, fearful for herself, catches at phrases and fancies, as drowning men catch at straws.

From An Old Meerschaum From Coals Of Fire And Other Stories, Volume II. (of III.) by Murray, David Christie

Mr. Shepley pretended to think that the picture resembled his wife, and this idea was seized upon as drowning men catch at straws.

From Half a Century by Swisshelm, Jane Grey Cannon

Drowning people, it is said, catch at straws.

From Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged Physician by Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)

What could possess me to make such a request of such a man I cannot tell; but drowning men catch at straws: they had driven me desperate between them; I hardly knew what I said. 

From The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Brontë, Anne

Notwithstanding its improbability, the idea takes, and is entertained, as drowning men catch at straws.

From The Death Shot A Story Retold by Reid, Mayne