on the bubble | Idiomator

Meaning: (motor racing)Holding the lastqualifying positionwith qualification still in progress, and thus liable to lose that position.Smith wason the bubblebut lost out when Jones was faster by a tenth of a second.; (sports)Having qualification for an event depend on the upcoming performances of other competitors; hence, at risk of beingeliminated, andreversely, being close to qualification;on the verge.The Knights had beenon the bubblefor the tournament, but played their way in by winning their last five games.2006, Dan Harrington, Bill Robertie,Harrington on Hold 'Em::Most players play pretty looseon the bubble, much looser than they theoretically should, and even if I saw an opponent sitting out a few hands, it's more likely that he just hit a run of low cards than that he turned into a locksmith at this stage.2009, Dick Couch,The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class, page228:Lewis and Marc Luttrell areon the bubblebecause they have yet to make the timed run in Third Phase, but they make this one.; (idiomatic)Uncertain of success.The new bond issue now appears to beon the bubble, with support eroding.; Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seeon,‎bubble.2004, David D. Moon,Carbon Dating, Cold Fusion, and a Curve Ball, page109:Among other aspects of bubble measurement, the researchers were interested in measuring the size of the bubble with a laser scattering technique. A laser is shoneon the bubble, which scatters the light.

Examples:

EN: You're sure your partner ain't got you on the bubble gum?
ES: ¿Seguro que tu socio no te tiene mascando chicle?
EN: The water will be on the bubble in a minute.
ES: El agua hervirá enseguida.
EN: Keep your eye on the bubble.
ES: Mantén los ojos en ella. Despacio.
EN: There are a lot of people on the bubble.
ES: Hay un montón de gente en la burbuja.
EN: He's right on the bubble.
ES: Está a punto.
EN: Our license renewal is on the bubble.
ES: Nuestra licencia de renovación está en peligro.
EN: We can't! The controls are on the bubble panel. -You see it?
ES: No podemos, el control está encima, lo ves?
EN: You never existed on the bubble world and your presence there now might upset the whole process.
ES: Su presencia podría alterar todo.
EN: Jonny. We're on the bubble now, so we have to stay close to the ground on this thing.
ES: Jhonny, la situación es delicada, debemos quedar bien parados con esto
EN: -Well, you're-- You're right on the bubble of being able to graduate.
ES: Corres el peligro de no graduarte.
EN: -Apparently right now, my grades are on the bubble. The powers that be at our beloved Capeside High they don't know if I'm gonna be able to graduate or not.
ES: Mis notas no están muy bien así que las autoridades de nuestra querida escuela no saben si me voy a graduar.
EN: If we want an overhead bin, we're already on the bubble.
ES: Lo lamento, minina. - Adiós.
EN: The controls are on the bubble panel.
ES: Los controles están en el panel central.
EN: You're on the bubble.
ES: Estás a prueba.
EN: Of the six kids that you admitted, how many of them are on the bubble as far as Ms. Stevens' evaluations are concerned?
ES: De los seis niños que usted admitió, ¿cuántos de ellos estaban más lejos en cuanto a las evaluaciones de la srita. Stevens?

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).