Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
drug on the market en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Meanings
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(idiomatic) something which is overabundant at the moment and thus not in demand.
...the bread fruit, roasted in the ashes of the fire, and the custard apples, with tea, furnished forth such a luxurious feast that all fears of possible starvation vanished, while the humble cocoanut at once became a drug on the market, useful enough perhaps as a thirst-quencher but otherwise of little value.
1923, Harry Collingwood, The Wreck of the Andromeda:for days and days he patrolled the town in vain; seeking for work, and finding none. The place, as his candid informer had said, was filled with clerks like himself in search of employment; and they, linguists especially, were a drug in the market — the cessation of the Franco-German War having flooded the country with foreign labour.
1880, J.C. Hutcheson, Fritz and Eric:
Forms