loose cannon
an unpredictable, irresponsible person
TRANSLATION
to be a loose cannon = unberechenbar bzw. gemeingefährlich sein --- GOOGLE INDEX loose cannon: approximately 2,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta branded President Trump a “LOOSE CANNON” and slammed the “yes people” surrounding him, saying, “This president needs to have some grownups around him.”
Yahoo.com News
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Even long-standing clients with spotless balance sheets are suddenly being treated like unreliable LOOSE CANNONS by their banks, who are acting on the premise that every loan that is not granted is one fewer risk.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
Yahoo.com News
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Even long-standing clients with spotless balance sheets are suddenly being treated like unreliable LOOSE CANNONS by their banks, who are acting on the premise that every loan that is not granted is one fewer risk.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
Did you
know?
loose cannon
noun phrase (idiom)
- an unpredictable or uncontrolled person who is liable to cause unintentional damage
(Oxford English Dictionary)
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In his 1944 autobiography of Teddy Roosevelt, journalist William White recalls the former U.S. president saying, "I don't want to be the old cannon loose on the deck during a storm." This was not the first time that this expression was used however. The Phrase Finder notes a passage from an article in a Texas newspaper at the end of the 19th century: "The negro vote in the south is a unit now mainly because it is opposed by the combined white vote. It would in no event become, as Mr. Grady once said, "a loose cannon in a storm-tossed ship."
But as frequently happens, the moment a famous person or celebrity is quoted using such phrases, it tends to push the expression into popularity. The origin of this phrase goes back to the days when sailing ships carried cannons on their decks. The cannons were on rollers and secured with ropes. It doesn't take too much to imagine what happened when a firing cannon was insecurely fastened, it was liable to injure or kill sailors
So in a figurative sense, a "loose cannon" is someone who says or does things that lead to an unpleasant or embarrassing situation or creates a risk for himself or others.
Examples might be a businessman in an office full of female co-workers who makes inappropriate jokes or a senior manager who publicly criticizes the company's strategy, leading to a fall in the stock price.
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The classic loose cannon is played by Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean"
noun phrase (idiom)
- an unpredictable or uncontrolled person who is liable to cause unintentional damage
(Oxford English Dictionary)
---
In his 1944 autobiography of Teddy Roosevelt, journalist William White recalls the former U.S. president saying, "I don't want to be the old cannon loose on the deck during a storm." This was not the first time that this expression was used however. The Phrase Finder notes a passage from an article in a Texas newspaper at the end of the 19th century: "The negro vote in the south is a unit now mainly because it is opposed by the combined white vote. It would in no event become, as Mr. Grady once said, "a loose cannon in a storm-tossed ship."
But as frequently happens, the moment a famous person or celebrity is quoted using such phrases, it tends to push the expression into popularity. The origin of this phrase goes back to the days when sailing ships carried cannons on their decks. The cannons were on rollers and secured with ropes. It doesn't take too much to imagine what happened when a firing cannon was insecurely fastened, it was liable to injure or kill sailors
So in a figurative sense, a "loose cannon" is someone who says or does things that lead to an unpleasant or embarrassing situation or creates a risk for himself or others.
Examples might be a businessman in an office full of female co-workers who makes inappropriate jokes or a senior manager who publicly criticizes the company's strategy, leading to a fall in the stock price.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The classic loose cannon is played by Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean"
