A Chinese man got his arm stuck in the toilet today, and had to be rescued. He had accidentally dropped his phone in the toilet and was trying to get it out. He did not want it to go “down the drain.”
When rescue workers arrived, the man was sitting next to the toilet with his arm stuck completely under water in the toilet. The rescuers had to break the toilet into pieces to get the man’s arm out! It took them 10 minutes to get his arm free.
In the end, he just had some cuts and bruises on his arm. And he DID get his phone back, but will it work?
Click here to read the full story.
LEARNING ENGLISH: What does “down the drain” mean? It means that something will be lost or wasted, or will disappear. For example, “I had a good grade in math class, but after I got a D on the last test, my good grade went down the drain.”
EXTRA PRACTICE: Post a comment and tell about something of yours that has gone “down the drain.” You can make it up, or tell a true story. Be sure to use the phase “down the drain” in your comment.
Ms. Leininger's ELL Blog 
Hello Ms. Leininger
My pet cat she would came with us to here to Kuwait but the government of Germany need a test blood that you can only do the test in Europe and this need three months of anticipation and we know of this three weeks before that come to Kuwait. Bring Mishu to Kuwait down the drain (Mishu is the name of my cat)
miss why did a person still grab his cellphone when its already dropped in the toilet ?
When I forgot a cap in the course, I looked again on Thursday and no cap was found. I tell the course teacher to find it but it still missing. And my cap was down the drain.
Down the Drain
I had a black gold fish that was named Bob. He was my favorit fish but he died when he was 2 weeks old. It was so sad I was crying all night because my dad had to flush him down the drain. ( don’t have a pet named Bob or that pet will die when it’s 2 weeks old and it will go down the drain like my Bob did.)
Hi miss,
Well I really don’t now..Ohh waiit waitt I remembered one 😀 This happened in Panama, like for Febrary on 2009. My family and me went to Las Tablas (The Tables), because in febrary celebrate the carnavals, because my friend’s mom invite my family and others friends to go together there and have fun day. From Panama City to there was like 3 hours but depends we had like almost 4 hour because sometimes we were losted and my dad asked people, well when we were almost in the place where were my friends we had like 1 hour looking for the house and I call my friend and then our mothers talk and almost that go down the drain, but my friend’s mom drive so fast that my dad change mind. We went to the house only for one day but in the night that was sooooooo sooo aweesoomeeee, you had to see it that was an expectacule. All the princess were in the adorned cars so nice and with their dressess, when my dad saw one he said: ” Stephanie, look that dress you will have one like that for your 15’s birthday!!! ” That was so funny, the dress had diamonds and swaroski rocks. In the morning so early people went all the streets and start to put water in the bodies of the people, one time I saw a little girl and she put me COLD WATER, that was so cooollldd because she had ice in the water hahaha, we ate there Sweet Apples my first time that I ate that I liked so sooo much that I wanted to eat about 2 but my tooth hurst soo much so I didn’t finish one. We had to go like at 2pm because in Panama my neighbords were waiting for us for go together to an AquaPark and that go down the drain, because we arrived to my house like 9pm.
Hi Ms! Alex has a cold but he’s fever down the drain.
Phil – I see what you’re trying to do here with your sentence, but that isn’t exactly how we use the phrase “down the drain.” We use it more when we talk about an idea, plan, or an actual object that is lost. For example, you could say, “We had plans to go to the movies, but because Alex was sick, our plans went down the drain.”
once we booked tickets to Jordan and i was very happy. 😉 when the day came we woke up late, my dad drove the car quickly but we didn’t catch the plane….. and our tickets were down the drain.
Joanna – Oh no! That’s terrible! I am always worried that I am going to miss the plane anytime I travel. So I try to get the airport 2-3 hours before my flight. Your story is a perfect example of something going “down the drain.”