Sailing close to the wind

When we say that someone is sailing close to the wind, we mean that they are doing something that could go wrong. Perhaps it is someone you work with who is doing something that might annoy the boss or that might result in the company losing money. Or it might be someone you are at school with who is always late doing their home tasks or who does something that annoys the teacher. There is a danger that they will get into a lot of trouble.

The phrase originates from the idea of someone steering a sailing boat or yacht very near to the direction from wind is blowing. Doing that is risky and could lead to disaster.

• He is sailing very close to the wind when he argues with the teacher.
• She is sailing close to the wind with that project; it could go badly wrong.

A similar idiom is “skating or thin ice”. Again, we use this when someone does something that could lead to problems or even disaster:

• He is skating on thin ice by staying out late at night when his parents have told him to be home by 10 o’clock.
• They are skating on thin ice when they don’t answer the police officer’s questions truthfully.

Another metaphor is “to put one’s head on the block”. We use this when someone risks something bad happening – even though they are trying to do something helpful:

• She put her head on the block when she lent the money to her friend.
• They put their heads on the block when they disagreed with their boss.
• I’m not going to put my head on the block after what went wrong last time I supported you.

The phrase comes from the days when executions were carried out by “decapitation” – chopping people’s heads off. A criminal would put his head on the block so that it could be chopped off.

“To go out on a limb” has a similar meaning. In this case a limb is a large branch of a tree (in other usages it can be an arm or a leg). Imagine climbing along a branch. The further you go he more danger you are in:

• I went out on a limb to support your idea in that meeting, but I think I made myself unpopular with our other colleagues.
• She went out on a limb to protect her friend.

There are other phrases that we use to describe difficult or dangerous situations. These include:

• “On a knife edge”
• “Close to the edge”
• “Living dangerously”

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_{Posted by Graham}

_{With thanks to Yulia for the idea.}