asleep at the switch

asleep at the switch  {adj. phr.}
1. Asleep when it is one's duty to move a railroad switch for cars to go on the right track.
The new man was asleep at the switch and the two trains crashed.
2.  {informal}
Failing to act promptly as expected, not alert to an opportunity.
When the ducks flew over, the boy was asleep at the switch and missed his shot.
Categories: adjective informal
Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

An client error occurred: Error calling GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=id%2Csnippet&q=%22asleep+at+the+switch%22&maxResults=4&videoEmbeddable=true&videoSyndicated=true&safeSearch=strict&type=video&key=AIzaSyCfLRuAZZNAQm6a5uDzgY-Tt668bxsppCs: (403) The request cannot be completed because you have exceeded your <a href="/youtube/v3/getting-started#quota">quota</a>.


Subscribe to: American Idioms