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Walk the plank

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Generated image of a man walking the plank
To walk the plank means to be forced to face punishment. Today it is most often used jokingly to suggest someone must accept the consequences of their actions.

The phrase comes from pirate stories in which a captive was forced to walk along a wooden plank extending from a ship and fall into the sea. Although popular in fiction, historians believe this practice was mostly a legend rather than a common real event.

After breaking the office printer again, he joked that he might have to walk the plank.