scrape the bottom of the barrel

短语

刮桶底,几近崩溃

发音

AU

词形变化

scraped the bottom of the barrel scrapes the bottom of the barrel 三单 scrapes the bottom of the barrel scraping the bottom of the barrel scraping the bottom of the barrel 现在分词 scraped the bottom of the barrel 过去式 scraped the bottom of the barrel 过去分词

别名

scrape at the bottom of the barrel

释义与例句

v.
  1. 1.

    To settle for a poor option due to a lack or unavailability of anything more favorable.

    习语 非正式

    They must really have been scraping the bottom of the barrel if they couldn't find a better design than that.

词源

Derived from the historical practice in the early European history of storing food in barrels; when food supplies ran low, only what was on the very bottom of the barrel remained, and had to be removed by scraping. Oil in a barrel has different fractions with a different weight. The heavier fractions like asphaltum sink to the bottom of the barrel and can be difficult to scrape from the bottom.

来源：wiktionary