safe and sound
3 antonyms and opposites of safe and sound, grouped by meaning.
Adjective phrase — Having arrived or come through something without injury or harm, especially after a period of worry or danger.
Antonyms
How to use safe and sound
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Neutral and everyday, common in speech, messages and news reporting.
Etymology
Conjunction of safe (“not in danger”) and sound (“intact, healthy”). Compare with Old French sauf et sain.
Full origin of safe and sound →Frequently asked questions
Is safe and sound redundant?
Technically yes, since sound here already means free from damage. It survives as a fixed alliterative pair, and the doubling is what gives it its reassuring warmth, so nobody trims it.
What does the sound in safe and sound mean?
It is the older sense of sound meaning whole, healthy and undamaged, the same one in of sound mind and a sound structure. It has nothing to do with noise.
When do you use safe and sound?
Almost always about a person or thing that has just completed a journey or escaped a risk. It rarely describes an ongoing state, so you would say she got back safe and sound rather than she is safe and sound at her desk.