desperate straits

An especially difficult, bleak, or grim situation. The recent nosedive in the stock market has left many companies in desperate straits. Long-term unemployment and health issues drive many people to desperate straits in this part of the country. With his job gone and debt mounting, John has been in desperate straits. I really don't know how he'll be able to keep his home.

desperate straits

A very difficult situation. The noun “strait,” usually in the plural (straits), has been used since the 1600s to mean a dilemma of some kind. One of the earliest pairings with “desperate” was in Harriet Martineau’s The History of England during the Thirty Years’ Peace (1849): “Never were Whig rulers reduced to more desperate straits.” Today the term is used both seriously and ironically, as in “We’re in desperate straits today—the newspaper never arrived.”