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Reader question: Please explain “walked the plank” in this quote: “Whether Greece has walked the plank to an economic and political collapse is still unknown.” My comments: In other words, the speaker thinks that Greece has embarked on a road to economic and political ruin, although he will not say so outright. But the situation is pretty dire, that we can be certain, or the speaker would not have used the expression “walked the plank”. Only unruly pirates who have committed capital crimes are or, as it were, were forced to walk the plank and fall over – into the bottomless sea. According to legend, captains of pirate ships used to carry out executions this way, centuries ago actually. To do it, they install a plank, a narrow long wooden board, by the side of the ship protruding out over the water. Then they have their prisoner, often bound and blindfolded, walk onto the plank and walk toward the far end. And when the prisoner reaches the end, he fall off the plank and into the waves – to drown or to be eaten alive by fish. It is conjectured that pirates sometimes did this to entertain themselves. You can imagine how dire and dull their lives were on a pirate ship, but anyways, the long and short of it is, he who walks the plank is doomed. That’s the essential idea conveyed by the phrase “walk the plank”. In our example, since the plank is invoked, the image it evokes is unmistakable. Greece is in big trouble, and probably on a road to inevitable ruin. | 
