Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A flimsy structure, arrangement, or situation that is in danger of collapsing or failing.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A structure made by laying cards perpendicularly on top of each other
- noun idiomatic A
structure orargument built on ashaky foundation
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a speculative scheme that depends on unstable factors that the planner cannot control
- noun an unstable construction with playing cards
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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This is a house of cards, and I'm afraid it could all come down at any time.
In the Forest of the Snake People (Part 1) Jason Radak 2010
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Well the house of cards is starting to fall finally.
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John Monnier, another one of the team leaders, admits that he was skeptical about all this tilted-disk business; it just seemed like a house of cards.
Discover Blogs 2010
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This is the house of cards that is now collapsing.
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This is not just because of strange things happening once a small alteration is made to the house of cards; it is also because it cannot remotely be justified as a high priority in the present circumstances.
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2009
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This is not just because of strange things happening once a small alteration is made to the house of cards; it is also because it cannot remotely be justified as a high priority in the present circumstances.
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2009
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