hit the skids

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

hit the skids (third-person singular simple present hits the skids, present participle hitting the skids, simple past and past participle hit the skids)

1. (intransitive, originally US) To fail; to decline.
   • 2010, Ganesh Rathnam, Mises Daily, “A Greek Tragedy in the Making”, in Mises Institute‎^[1]:

     After all, if these measures could've succeeded, they would've been implemented five years ago when the world economy hadn't yet hit the skids.

   • 2023 June 6, Ian Bogost, “The Age of Goggles Has Arrived”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

     A metaverse backlash, already fully rooted, began to bloom. Microsoft’s military contract hit the skids, Disney laid off its entire metaverse team, and even Zuckerberg’s own employees seem not to have much time for the technology.

Related terms

• on the skids
• skid row

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “hit the skids v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang