lose your edge

lose (one's) edge

To lose the skills, conviction, or energy that helped make one a success before. At one point I was considered one of the best tennis players in North America, but I lost my edge during college.
See also: edge, lose
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

lose your edge

COMMON If someone or something loses their edge, they no longer have the special skills, qualities or advantages that they had in the past. As a company, they had lost their competitive edge. Its critics say the magazine is out of date and has lost its edge. Note: If a sword or knife has lost its edge, it is blunt.
See also: edge, lose
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • drive (one) out of office
  • force (one) out of office
  • force out of office
  • give (one) (one's) head
  • give head
  • give somebody their head
  • give someone their head
  • cooking for one
  • 1FTR
  • as one door closes, another one opens
References in periodicals archive
"You lose your edge when there is nothing to play for.
WAR STILL TO BE AT PEACE
I want to be successful here, but you can't take away desire and ambition otherwise you lose your edge t o want to work
ROVERFLOW: Flattering, but Pompey job was not an issue
"Even an inflamed Catholic laity can reach a saturation point and then you lose your edge," she says.
Dallas meeting disappoints many. (signs of the times)
WHAT happens when you reach your 30s and begin to lose your edge? Life seems to be drifting into drab conformity and, what's more, you keep losing at football to fit young men 10 years younger than you.
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