Meaning of save the furniture | Babel Free

Definitions

To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party.

Australia, Canada, UK, idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“[S]winging progressives were keen to consolidate the diving Labor vote and save the furniture so that a reasonably-sized progressive opposition party could live to fight another day.”

“A week after a headline in a Montreal newspaper suggested the NDP Leader’s numbers are so low it is time to “save the furniture,” he is still battling aggressively.”

“In other words, the PLP could unite behind an experienced figure who would take them to a dignified defeat but would save the furniture.”

CEFR level