dire straits

An especially bleak, grim, or difficult situation. The recent nosedive in the stock market has left many companies in dire straits in recent years. Long-term unemployment and health issues drive many people to dire straits in this part of the country. I'm in dire straits, Dave. I gambled away our mortgage money at the casino—what am I going to do?

dire straits, in

In an awful situation, terrible circumstances. The adjective “dire,” which dates from the mid-1500s, is rarely heard today except in this cliché and one other phrase, dire necessity, which uses it more or less hyperbolically (as, for example, in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 1836 letter, “The dire necessity of having every window in the house open . . .”). In contrast, the cliché describes a genuine difficulty or danger, as in “The stock-market crash left him in dire straits financially.” Also the name of a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995.