Idiom idiom
recipe for disaster
Meaning
A plan that sounds as though it will end disastrously.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Mixing those two chemicals is a recipe for disaster.”
“Trying to finish a massive project in one night without any help is a recipe for disaster.”
“The manager's decision to ignore the safety warnings while increasing production quotas was clearly a recipe for disaster that would eventually lead to a major accident.”
Origin
A combination of recipe and disaster.
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026