pick up the pieces

present singular third person picks up the pieces · participle present picking up the pieces · participle past picked up the pieces · past picked up the pieces

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo restore one's life (or a given situation etc.) to a normal state, after a calamity, shock etc.

   "Cutting administrators is a huge mistake, and will only mean other staff such as nurses have to pick up the pieces."

   2011 February 3, Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian

   2 more examples

   Picking up the pieces after the Suez disaster, the British found themselves getting used to the idea that they are not as big a power as they thought they were.

   1957 January 14, “Roberts' Rules of Order”, in Time Magazine

   This is a scorched earth policy, leaving Labour - which has made the right noises, but not loudly enough - with the job of picking up the pieces. Given the incoherence of the plans, the best hope is that the public outcry - even the Daily Telegraph is against them - delays them enough for a new government to rescue most of the ticket offices from closure, but this is no way to run a railway.

   2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 43