the.com/sink or swim
Nobody teaches you the strokes, they just check if you float.
means Left to succeed or fail entirely through your own effort, with no help, instruction, or safety net provided.
from A literal image before it was a figure of speech: a person thrown into water who must either swim or sink, with nothing in between. It echoes old 'trial by water' practices, where the accused were dropped into a river or pond to test guilt — some even said the innocent would sink while the guilty floated. By the 1600s the phrase had waded ashore into everyday English as a plain description of being left to fend for yourself, with no instructor and no rope thrown in.
- origin
- old ordeal trials dunked suspects to test guilt
- myth
- struggling swimmers actually can't wave or call out
- modern use
- corporate euphemism for no training budget