Marie Celeste

Marie Celeste

A place, location, or high-occupancy vehicle (especially a ship) that is inexplicably deserted or abandoned. An allusion to the Mary Celeste, an American merchant brigantine that was discovered floating off the Azores Islands in 1872 with no one on board and still in seaworthy condition. (Note: The variant spelling of "Marie" is the more common usage for the idiomatic reference, likely due to its use in a story by Arthur Conan Doyle.) We came upon a house in the woods, empty as the Marie Celeste, but left otherwise untouched.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • strike out at (something or some place)
  • an end run
  • end run
  • end game
  • give (one) (one's) marching orders
  • give somebody their marching orders
  • give someone their marching orders
  • a security blanket
  • game is not worth the candle, the
  • hit (something) out of the (ball)park
References in periodicals archive
Premier Who Park United could be building towards a top-seven club under Rafa instead of being the Marie Celeste of the Premier League
The blame for this chaotic situation lies squarely at Ashley's door; united are playing catch-up because situation has been allowed to fester
This serves as a metaphor for Galileo's life, at the end of which he is summoned to Heaven by his beloved dead daughter Marie Celeste.
Concert notes. (Music)
It begins with an elderly Galileo lamenting the death of his daughter, Marie Celeste, and worrying that he had dedicated his life to the wrong priorities.
Galileo Galilei
Local bingo halls and old folks' homes resembled the Marie Celeste.
GRANDPOP IDOL; OAPs' talent show packs them in
It tells the story of Sister Marie Celeste, the illegitimate daughter and favorite correspondent and confidante of the convicted heretic and genius who came to be known as the father of modern science.
Telling life stories
There is plenty, of interest in some hoary old riddles: who killed the princes in the Tower, who shot JFK, what happened on the Marie Celeste, where is Alexander the Great buried, who was `Deep Throat', did the biblical Exodus really happen?
History Today Millennium Survey
Marie Celeste. For years, explained DiSenso, he had been sending Marie Celeste's Christmas cards to friends.
Poetry helps mindful priest grasp 'bit of it.' (Gerald DiSenso, 70-year-old priest in Otisville, NY influenced by poetry in his work)(Examined Life)
No one has yet been able to explain the mystery that surrounds the eerie disappearance of the crew of the Marie Celeste after the ship was found floating abandoned a month after her New York launch...
GHOST SHIP
1872: The Marie Celeste sailed from New York - and was found mysteriously abandoned near the Azores some time later.
ON THIS DAY
The mystery of a miniature Marie Celeste was solved at Southport when Liverpool chemist Mr John Gleeson revealed that he was the owner.
Echos of the past
The sub's interior was pristine, shades of the Marie Celeste - a half eaten meal on the wardroom table, bathed in the eerie blue wash of emergency lighting.
HISTORY JOHN SADLER
Gabriel Byrne and his salvage crew are out of their depth after finding a modern-day Marie Celeste. It opens with a jolt which certainly concentrates the mind for the graveyard games which are to follow.
FRIDAY
This night was never about Wales mounting some crazy Euro 2012 qualification comeback, akin to Lazarus sailing the Marie Celeste back from Atlantis.
Crofts. & Co keep Wales heading on right track
Others linger on like ghosts from the Marie Celeste, haunting half-empty galleries and media 'salons'.
Has city slipped off the radar?
"It's like the Marie Celeste. Asking people who have worked on this floor this is how its been for some months now.
Row over control room's closure