147 Down the drain
(PW) wasted, lost
I don’t like to throw my money down the drain.
(free)
down the drain (British, American & Australian informal) also down the gurgler (Australian informal)
if work or money goes down the drain, it is wasted.
Then our funding was withdrawn and two years' work went down the drain.
Say he gives up his training, that's four thousand pounds down the gurgler.
wasted or lost down the toilet
I'm scared I'm going to be out of a job, and my 12 years of experience will be down the drain.
Usage notes: often used with go: We cannot afford to let our train system go down the drain.
(your)
On the way to being lost or wasted; disappearing. For example, Buying new furniture when they can't take it with them is just pouring money down the drain, or During the Depression huge fortunes went down the drain. This metaphoric term alludes to water going down a drain and being carried off. [Colloquial; c. 1920] For a synonym, see down the tubes.
(phraseFinder) Down the tubes
Wasted and unrecoverable.
Origin
Which tubes are being alluded to in this expression isn't known for certain. A strong candidate must be the soil-pipes which are connected to lavatories. The phrase is a variant of 'down the drain' and is the American equivalent of the British 'down the pan'.
All the early citations come from US sports reports, notably baseball. The earliest reference to it that I have found is in the Charleston Daily Mail, May 1954, in an interview with the world-record breaking Parry O'Brien talking about his reaction to an earlier collegiate record of his being broken by Don Vick:
"Yes, that gave me another incentive. I was proud of that record. Then I had visions of all my records going down the tubes."
