primrose path

the primrose path

A life of pleasure and leisure that results in a negative or detrimental outcome. Usually used in the phrase "lead (one) down the primrose path." After winning the lottery, Jake found himself surrounded by people trying to lead him down the primrose path for their own benefit.
See also: path, primrose
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

primrose path

Fig. earthly delights that come to an end. She led him down the primrose path until she got tired of him.
See also: path, primrose
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

the primrose path

the pursuit of pleasure, especially when it is seen to bring disastrous consequences.
The allusion here is to ‘the primrose path of dalliance’ to which Ophelia refers in Hamlet.
See also: path, primrose
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

the primrose ˈpath (to ruin, destruction, etc.)

(literary) an easy life that is full of pleasure but that causes you harm in the end: If we followed your advice we’d all be walking down the primrose path to ruin.This phrase comes from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
See also: path, primrose
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

primrose path, the

The way of easy self-indulgence. Shakespeare used this term in two ways—as a path of pleasure (“the primrose path of dalliance,” Hamlet, 1.3) and as an easy but dangerous course of action (“the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire,” Macbeth, 2.1). The former meaning survives in the current cliché. See also garden path.
See also: primrose
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • primrose
  • primrose path, the
  • the primrose path
  • (one's) best foot forward
  • a recipe for disaster
  • (as) sure as eggs (is eggs)
  • 57
  • a penny for them
  • enough rope, give someone
  • Give enough rope and he'll hang himself
References in periodicals archive
"But I'm not going to cheerlead us down the primrose path when I know we're being led in the wrong direction.
An independent elector?
Under DeMille's guidance, Moore's career included roles as Valentino (as a boy) in the 1921 features "The Young Rajah" and "Blood and Sand"; the prince in the 1922 "The Queen of Sheba"; the Pharaoh's son in the original 1923 "The Ten Commandments" (he was the last living cast member); and as Clara Bow's brother in "The Primrose Path" in the late 1920s.
Pat Moore
(A recent headline on the rugby home page, "The Unpredictable Ruck," could lead the less-enlightened down the primrose path to all kinds of dirty thoughts.)
Something for the zebra set
seems to be stumbling blindly down a primrose path from the former to the latter.
Domestics vs. imports
Mortimer, 80, used the experience for his latest book about the wine-guzzling barrister, Rumpole and the Primrose Path.
The Scurra
When confined to the house in a blizzard in Iqaluit the ideal reading material is John Mortimer's Rumpole and the Primrose Path (Viking).
Reversible error
Our way is hard, we remind each other; it requires discipline and singlemindedness, lest we be led down the primrose path of self-indulgence and forfeit our eternal reward.
God so loved the world--so perhaps we can, too: Christians should reach for wholeness, not see pure spirit at odds with corrupt matter. (Columns)
"When population growth slows down, so that we no longer have the comfortable Ponzi rate of growth or we even begin to register a decline in total numbers," a chastened Paul Samuelson wrote in 1985, "then the thorns along the primrose path reveal themselves with a vengeance."
Social insecurity: Why an increasing number of countries are turning to market-based pension plans
There's the right thing to do, and there's the weak thing to do, and both Whitehall and Lancaster Gate generally choose the primrose path of weakness.
Football: Kick out the Turks until aggro stops
With the help of one or more married couples, a priest, and sometimes a doctor, these programs have often been helpful in leading young women and men down the marital primrose path without their being impaled on its thorns.
Good advice is hard to find
Post-structuralists may salivate, and it is sad to see such a distinguished social historian as Raphael Samuel following this primrose path and celebrating the democratic vitality of theme-park history; but this denies historians the right and the power to explain, analyse, criticise and provoke real debate.
The lion and the Newt; a British View of American conservatives' fear of social history
One woman felt she went down the primrose path of leaving everything to her doctor (she had a labor assistant and VBAC for her second birth).
Cesarean Births: Personal Stories
At the same time, they appropriately stress the dangers of taking the primrose path in the name of cooperation.
Mutual Gains: A Guide to Union-Management Cooperation, 2d rev. ed
In fact, he indicated that he had expected me to be wearing flowing robes, from having read my proposal; he was under the impression that I may have been led down the primrose path, he said.
Sarah Hall Gueldner, RN;DSN;FAAN
It was adapted for the stage by <IR> GEORGE ABBOTT </IR> as Primrose Path (1939).
Lincoln, Victoria (1904-1981)