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out of commission
Idioms and Phrases
Not in working order, unable to function. For example, The drawbridge is out of commission so we'll have to take the tunnel . This idiom originally referred to a ship that was laid up for repairs or held in reserve. Similarly, the antonym, in commission , referred to a ship armed and ready for action. The latter term is also used in more general contexts today, as in My car's back in commission now, so we can drive to the theater . [Late 1800s]Example Sentences
He’d heard about the bus shortage — roughly three-quarters of the department’s inmate transport buses were out of commission — and wondered if that kind of large-scale evacuation was really possible.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered an investigation into the loss of pressure and the lack of water available from a reservoir in Pacific Palisades that was out of commission for repairs.
Others are ‘silent casualties’: Intact but out of commission as the community rebuilds.
The collision knocked the plane out of commission for about five days and destroyed the drone.
Newsom has ordered an investigation into the loss of pressure to hydrants and the lack of water available from a reservoir in Pacific Palisades that was out of commission for repairs.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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