to go to the dogs
6
6.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
irse al garete
- People are worried that the quality of education in our schools is going to the dogs.
- have gone to the dogs, literally
- country is going to the dogs
- place is going to the dogs
Once you get into the phase of printing money, that's when it goes to the dogs basically.
- Once you get into the phase of printing money, that's when it goes to the dogs basically.
- So if you are putting your money where your mouth is, we are literally going to the dogs when it comes to spending on energy innovation.
Examples
-
The club's going to the dogs.
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Health care in this country-- it's going to the dogs.
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These houses are going to the dogs.
-
This is the day, our country went to the dogs.
-
The country is obviously going to the dogs, so why not leave?
Blog text (8) -
No wonder all the critics are saying talk shows are going to the dogs.
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This country's going to the dogs.
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This country's going to the dogs!
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The country's going to the dogs, and Walmart's leading the pack.
Fiction book (1999) -
Many locals believe that the community library is going to the dogs due to neglect.
Synonyms
18
5.5
Plans or hopes suddenly fail and disappear for good
9
9.9
To go very badly and fail completely
8
9.3
To become much worse very quickly and out of control
7
6.6
To be completely ruined and lose all value
4
4.0
Start to break into pieces or stop working well
3
8.2
To become ruined or not cared for
2
7.3
To become untidy and overgrown and lose quality
To suddenly become chaotic and very messy
To become very unpleasant and harmful in a relationship or group
Antonyms
How Ruined
Surface Forms
Morphology
go + to + the + dogs
The meaning 'to become ruined or deteriorate' cannot be directly derived from the literal constituents 'go' + 'to' + 'the' + 'dogs' — a B1 learner would likely imagine physically going to dogs rather than a metaphorical decline. This is a culture-specific idiom whose meaning is unpredictable from the parts, so it is opaque to learners who only know the individual words.
Etymology
The idiom go to the dogs may come from an old image where people threw old or broken things to the dogs to eat because they were useless. That's why go to the dogs means 'to become ruined' or 'to get much worse'.