Meaning of asleep at the switch | Babel Free

Definitions

Neglectful of an important task, responsibility, or opportunity.

idiomatic

Examples

“His vote⟳ demonstrates that the people of Philadelphia are not asleep at the switch⟳, are not indifferent to their political duties.”

“My guardian angel had not been asleep at the switch⟳.”

“It is sometimes difficult to guess⟳ whether a sentence has been garbled by the author or the typesetter […] . In either case, the editors were asleep at the switch⟳.”

“Why America (but not Canada) failed to set⟳ up a needed synfuels industry.”

““We all were asleep at the switch⟳ as the Chinese government decided to prioritise these clean⟳ energy technologies as a matter⟳ of national industrial strategy,” says Geoffrey Pyatt, a former US assistant secretary of energy and diplomat now at the advisory firm McLarty Associates.”

CEFR level