barrel
be staring down the barrel of… – locuzione
He found himself staring down the barrel of a .38 caliber pistol.
Our industry is staring down the barrel of a gun.
America is “staring down the barrel of martial law” as it approaches the presidential election, a US senator from Oregon has warned.
He hasn’t played since early last year and he’s staring down the barrel of being banished for the whole year this year.
Now, staring down the barrel of a decade of rapid transformation, we confront a critical decision.
Come illustrato dai primi due esempi qui sopra, la locuzione to be staring down the barrel of a gun ha sia un significato letterale, quello di essere sotto minaccia armata (‘gun’, ‘pistol’ o ‘rifle’), sia un significato figurato, cioè il trovarsi in pericolo. Nel secondo esempio la metafora è chiara: l’industria di cui si parla è alle prese con qualcosa che potrebbe distruggerla in poco tempo. E spesso, in questo senso figurato, al posto di ‘gun’ viene specificata la minaccia, che si tratti di ‘defeat’, ‘cancer’ o ‘redundancy’ o una situazione specifica, come negli ultimi due esempi. Un comportamento flessibile, questo, tipico di molte espressioni idiomatiche inglesi.
Traduzione di Loredana Riu
be staring down the barrel of… – phrase
He found himself staring down the barrel of a .38 caliber pistol.
Our industry is staring down the barrel of a gun.
America is “staring down the barrel of martial law” as it approaches the presidential election, a US senator from Oregon has warned.
He hasn’t played since early last year and he’s staring down the barrel of being banished for the whole year this year.
Now, staring down the barrel of a decade of rapid transformation, we confront a critical decision.
The expression to be staring down the barrel of a gun has both literal and figurative meanings, as can be seen in the first two examples above. The expression can describe a situation where someone is literally pointing a gun at you (the word ‘gun’ is sometimes replaced by another word such as ‘pistol’ or rifle) or one where you are facing an immediate danger. The metaphor in the second example is clear: the industry is facing something that could destroy it very quickly. The expression is used far more broadly than this, however, with ‘gun’ being replaced by a whole range of things that threaten someone or something, such as ‘defeat’ or ‘cancer’ or ‘redundancy’. The expression is also used to describe very specific situations, as in the last two examples. This very flexible behaviour is quite typical of many English idioms.
Origin
The term barrel for the long tube of a gun dates from the 17th century but I have been unable to discover the date of the first use of the idiom.
