Idiom: "swimming with sharks"

[Matvej]

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #201 "Idioms about Animals", question 3

Everyone told me I'd be ......... if I took that job on Wall Street.

(a) swimming like a jellyfish
(b) swimming with sharks
(c) swimming with fish

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #201 "Idioms about Animals", answer 3

Everyone told me I'd be swimming with sharks if I took that job on Wall Street.

Correct answer: (b) swimming with sharks
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Hi,
I think that i am correct, but i want to know the explanation

Matvej

[Conchita]

The idiom to swim with sharks means to take a huge risk.

In stock exchange* jargon, a shark is a crook or a swindler.

* The New York Stock Exchange is in Wall Street, Manhattan.

[Yankee]

Hi Matvej

In addition to what Conchita has said, a "shark" can also be a greedy or ruthless or treacherous person.

In the context of the sentence, I would tend to understand that "swimming with sharks" means "working with ruthless, back-stabbing people who will stop at nothing to achieve their own goals (profit)." In this sense, a shark doesn't care what he does to you or a company. He "attacks fiercely" in order to achieve his own goals. The "attack" could be perfectly legal, even though it might hurt a lot of other people.

So, I wouldn't automatically understand "swindler" here, although I'm sure there are plenty of swindlers on Wall Street, too.

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Hi,

A common use of the word is a loan shark - someone who charges an enormous interest rate on money that is being loaned or lent.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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