a ripple effect

ripple effect

The continuing impact that one thing or event has on others. She always hoped that the kindness she showed others would have a positive ripple effect through her community. Many people believe that the flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause a ripple effect that impacts weather patterns hundreds of miles away.
See also: effect, ripple
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

a ˈripple effect

a situation in which an event or action has an effect on something, which then has an effect on something else: His resignation will have a ripple effect on the whole department.
A ripple is a small wave on the surface of a liquid, especially water in a lake, etc.
See also: effect, ripple
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • ripple
  • ripple effect
  • give (one) a dose of (one's) own medicine
  • give (one) a taste of (one's) own medicine
  • give somebody a taste/dose of their own medicine
  • give someone a taste of their own medicine
  • in private
  • in public
  • ET
  • et al.
References in periodicals archive
"We are of the view the children just fainted and there was a ripple effect throughout the school.
New York, NY, August 23, 2012 --(PR.com)-- A Ripple Effect reminds you - what happens to us doesn't have to define or control you.
These four people and their struggles will make you laugh and leave you wondering "what would You do." A Ripple Effect, a novel available at Onpointo.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and also for the Kindle and Nook.
Bullard, is a writer, a speaker, and host of A Ripple Effect Talk Radio.
The service you provide to clients creates a ripple effect that can build up or tear down all the hard work you've invested.
Every choice we make creates a ripple effect on our lives and those of others round about us.
Willow and cottonwood are returning in northern Yellowstone, and a ripple effect has begun.
Many initiatives have arisen since then, generating a ripple effect in which 'you put a stone in the water and it continues further and further'.
Jules Gravel, reeve of Armstrong Township and manager of the airport, says when the airport's scheduled flights tapered off due to low demand, a ripple effect from the SARS scare and terrorist attacks of Sept.
While radical changes are unlikely, any change could cause a ripple effect that would unsettle the delicate balance between boom and bust.
I am somewhat amazed at how a small group of murderers can disrupt world commerce on the scale they did, and set up a ripple effect that will be felt for quite some time.
That is, the painting must seem to expand beyond the canvas, so that its abstractness seems unlimitable--a surge of alternative vision, with the inner recognition of primary process (what Husserl called inner time consciousness and Bergson called duration) as a ripple effect. If this elated visual complexity does not emerge from the "stereoscopic" integration of gesture and grid (the double technical dimension obliquely corresponds to the double dimension of the effect) each tends to fall flat.
Latham--who is not involved in the latest rumored deal--said, "The Downtown market is largely dependent on the financial services sector, and there's a ripple effect when financial firms start adding jobs.