Idiom
a house built on sand
Meaning
A plan or venture with no solid foundation, liable to collapse under pressure.
Examples
“Their plan was a house built on sand.”
“The whole scheme was a house built on sand, funded entirely by loans it could never repay.”
“Growth looked spectacular until the first downturn revealed a house built on sand — no cash reserves, no loyal customers, nothing beneath the numbers to hold the whole thing up.”
Examples
simple
“Their plan was a house built on sand.”
contextual
“The whole scheme was a house built on sand, funded entirely by loans it could never repay.”
complex
“Growth looked spectacular until the first downturn revealed a house built on sand — no cash reserves, no loyal customers, nothing beneath the numbers to hold the whole thing up.”
Origin
The phrase closes the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:26-27, Jesus contrasts two builders: the wise man builds his house on rock, and it stands through the storm; the foolish man builds on sand, "and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."
The lesson in context is about foundations of a spiritual kind — hearing wise words and acting on them. But the picture is concrete and universal: anything built on shifting ground will not survive the first serious test.
English took the image straight. A house built on sand is any undertaking that looks fine until it is tested — a business without real revenue, a relationship without trust, an argument without evidence — sound in fair weather, doomed in a storm.
Stories
The Parables · See all Biblical origin
The short stories Jesus told to make a point.
good Samaritan — A person who helps someone in distress out of their own good nature.
the prodigal son — Someone who returns, chastened and repentant, after a period of reckless or wasteful living.
the eleventh hour — The very last possible moment before a deadline or a decisive event.
separate the wheat from the chaff — To select only that which is of value.
the widow's mite — A small gift that represents a great sacrifice for the person who gives it.
a good and faithful servant — Someone praised for loyal, diligent, and dependable service.
- Level
- C1 · Advanced
- Updated