be dropping like flies

be dropping like flies

To be succumbing to a particular problem, often an illness. This phrase is typically only used when more than one person has been adversely affected. Now that the flu is going through our school, people are dropping like flies.
See also: dropping, flies, like
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

be dropping like flies

1. If people are dropping like flies, large numbers of them are dying within a short period of time. Actors his age - many of them friends - are dropping like flies.
2. If large numbers of similar things are dropping like flies, they are all failing within a short period of time. While other retailers are dropping like flies, supermarkets are making fat profits.
See also: dropping, flies, like
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • drop like flies
  • drop like flies, to
  • drop like ninepins
  • go down like ninepins
  • go down, drop, etc. like ninepins
  • ninepin
  • fall like ninepins
  • (one's) best foot forward
  • best foot forward
  • eggs is eggs