The expression perhaps refers to a state of affairs the place one leads to deep water by chance, making an attempt to take hold of onto the rest that they may be able to use to pull themselves out.
Even though the precise starting place of the word “Grasping at straws” isn’t recognized, certainly one of its earliest documentations showing in print will also be discovered within the e-book of John High, printed in 1583, underneath the name “A Fruitefull and Briefe Discourse in Two Bookes”, even though it used to be more than likely round within the spoken language for for much longer.
Prints of the expression would infrequently happen within the next centuries, till 1800’s, when its recognition started to upward thrust.