go down for the third time
go down for the third time
Fig. to be just on the verge of failing. (From the notion that a boxer who is knocked down three times in one round normally loses the fight.) I was going down for the third time when I thought of a plan that would save my job.
See also: down, go, third, time
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
- come a gutser
- be down to (one)
- be down to somebody/something
- be down to something
- be down to (do something)
- close down
- close down and shut down
- bounce up and down
- come a cropper
- come a-cropper