go to the dogs en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
-
(idiomatic, informal) To decline or deteriorate shockingly.
Poor devil, he's gone to the dogs altogether. He's got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandria—sanitary officer or something like that. I'm told he lives with an ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids.
1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter L, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 264:"[T]he merry old ways of good life have gone to the dogs—upon my carcase, they have!"
1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter 42, in Far from the Madding Crowd:"The C.I.A. was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism and much more." . . . Baer, who quit the agency four years ago, says he is angry about all this, but he clearly has a good time recounting how the C.I.A. went to the dogs.
2002 February 3, Evan Thomas, "Bring Back the Exploding Cigars" (review of See No Evil by Robert Baer), New York Times (retrieved 17 Feb 2018)
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| went to the dogs | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| goes to the dogs | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| gone to the dogs | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| going to the dogs | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |
Synonyms
go downhill · go to shit · go to pot
Translations (27)
ru пойти́ по́ миру (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · nl naar de knoppen gaan (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · vec ndare a remengo (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · pl zejść na psy (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · nn gå i hundane (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · is fara í hundana (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · nl naar de verdoemenis gaan (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · es irse al diablo (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · it andare a rotoli (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · vec ndare in mona (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · fr aller à vau-l'eau (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · oc se desanar (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · es al traste (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · vec ndar a remengo (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · vec ndar in mona (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · oc anar al fil de l'aiga (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · it andare a male (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · de vor die Hunde gehen (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · nb gå i hundene (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · fi rapistua (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · nl naar de filistijnen gaan (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · pl schodzić na psy (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · oc èsser emportat coma per un corrent (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · nl naar de kloten gaan (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · fi ränsistyä (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · hu ebek harmincadjára jut (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate) · ca anar en orri (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate)