From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishon the skidson the skidsinformalFAIL in a situation that is bad and getting worse He’s been on the skids since losing his job. → skid
Examples from the Corpus
on the skids• Car and truck sales have been on the skids.• A medic jumped in as we got light on the skids.• I was light on the skids, the troops were out.• The ship hit and twisted on the skids, rocked over toward the left, hesitated precariously, and flopped back level.• Water and electricity shares were on the skids. 