down the drain, down the pipe, down the tube(s). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993

Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

down the drain, down the pipe, down the tube(s)


These expressions are slang, and all mean figuratively that whatever is down the drain, pipe, or tube is “wasted, lost, and irretrievable”: There go six weeks of work down the tube. We sent a couple of weeks’ pay down the pipe. See also UP THE PIPE.	1