pick up the pieces

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

pick up the pieces (third-person singular simple present picks up the pieces, present participle picking up the pieces, simple past and past participle picked up the pieces)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To restore one's life (or a given situation etc.) to a normal state, after a calamity, shock etc.
   • 1957 January 14, “Roberts' Rules of Order”, in Time Magazine:

     Picking up the pieces after the Suez disaster, the British found themselves getting used to the idea that they are not as big a power as they thought they were.

   • 2011 February 3, Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian:

     "Cutting administrators is a huge mistake, and will only mean other staff such as nurses have to pick up the pieces."

   • 2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 43:

     This is a scorched earth policy, leaving Labour - which has made the right noises, but not loudly enough - with the job of picking up the pieces. Given the incoherence of the plans, the best hope is that the public outcry - even the Daily Telegraph is against them - delays them enough for a new government to rescue most of the ticket offices from closure, but this is no way to run a railway.