Idiom
drive a stake through its heart
Meaning
get rid of, destroy permanently or stop talking about
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“We need to drive a stake through its heart and stop this project.”
“The committee decided to drive a stake through its heart to ensure the failed policy never returned.”
“The author hoped that by addressing the rumors directly, he could drive a stake through its heart and finally move on with his life.”
Examples
simple
“We need to drive a stake through its heart and stop this project.”
contextual
“The committee decided to drive a stake through its heart to ensure the failed policy never returned.”
complex
“The author hoped that by addressing the rumors directly, he could drive a stake through its heart and finally move on with his life.”
Origin
The phrase alludes to the methods of dispatching vampires in Gothic fiction. The imagery stems from the tradition that an undead creature must have a wooden stake driven through its heart to ensure its permanent destruction.
Key words
Related idioms
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