save the furniture

verb

Etymology

An allusion to rapidly removing as much furniture as possible from a building threatened by fire, flood, or a similar disaster. Compare French sauver les meubles.

Definitions

  1. To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the…

    To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party.

    • [S]winging progressives were keen to consolidate the diving Labor vote and save the furniture so that a reasonably-sized progressive opposition party could live to fight another day.
    • A week after a headline in a Montreal newspaper suggested the NDP Leader’s numbers are so low it is time to “save the furniture,” he is still battling aggressively.
    • In other words, the PLP could unite behind an experienced figure who would take them to a dignified defeat but would save the furniture.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for save the furniture. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA