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Glite Dictionary
to gone bad

to gone bad

1 3.2
To become spoiled and no longer safe to eat or use
  • phrasal verb
: echarse a perder
  • The milk has gone bad and should be thrown away.

But fresh fish oil, if it hasn't gone bad, actually shouldn't have any overt fishy flavor.

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Examples

  • It tastes like grape juice that's gone bad.

    The Big Sick (2017)

  • Has my meat gone bad after all that reprinting?

    Mickey 17 (2025)

  • -Whatever this used to be, it's gone bad.

    Spirit Untamed (2021)

  • This pack must have gone bad.

    Mandao Returns (2020)

  • The cotton was picked too late, so it has partly gone bad.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Their food was being depleted rapidly, she knew; much of it had simply gone bad.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The strawberry crop has gone bad this year.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • So if the dates on our food don't tell us that something's gone bad, what do they tell us?

  • The wine's gone bad.

    Mafia Mamma (2023)

  • If you do have veggies on the verge of going bad that you can't get to, freeze them!

    Blog text (23)

Synonyms

to go bad
vsto gone bad
142 2.1

Become unsafe to eat or use because it has spoiled

is the same idea but stresses lack of safety to eat
ruined
vsto gone bad
125 3.1

Badly damaged so it cannot be fixed or returned to how it was before

is narrower, referring to perishables becoming unsafe rather than total ruin
bad
vsto gone bad
84 1.0

Spoiled and not safe to eat

is the informal phrase emphasizing that same unsafe state
rotten
vsto gone bad
70 1.0

Gone bad and no longer good to eat or use

covers spoilage for eating even when not extremely decomposed
to go sour
vsto gone bad
19 4.1

To become bad or fail, for example a relationship

is specific to perishable items becoming unsafe to eat or use
to spoil
vsto gone bad
17 1.6

To go bad and not be safe to eat

describes the same process with emphasis on being unsafe
decayed
vsto gone bad
16 3.9

Something like wood, teeth, or food that is soft and broken because it has rotted

applies this breakdown specifically to perishables becoming unsafe
spoiled
vsto gone bad
13 1.8

Food that is no longer safe to eat because it has gone bad

names the general condition of being unsafe to consume
off
vsto gone bad
  • UK
11 2.7

No longer fresh and unpleasant to eat

focuses more on safety and being unsafe to eat
soured
vsto gone bad
8 5.0

Turned unpleasant, like milk that went bad or a friendship that ended

is broader, signalling unsafe condition rather than only taste change

Antonyms

fresh
557 1.0

Recently made or gathered food that is not spoiled

edible
74 1.4

Safe to eat and does not make you sick

How Spoiled

putrid
13 7.0
rotten
70 1.0
to gone bad
1 3.2
off
  • UK
11 2.7
stale
53 1.1
fresh
557 1.0

Surface Forms

gone bad infinitive
going bad present participle
goes bad third person singular
went bad past
gone bad past participle

Morphology

gone + bad

The meaning 'to have become spoiled' is directly derivable from combining 'gone' (here functioning as an inchoative/resultative: 'has gone' = 'has become') with 'bad' (spoiled). The productive English pattern go/gone + adjective meaning 'become X' is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrase gone bad comes from a simple image: something that was good has gone into a bad state, like milk left out that becomes lumpy and smells sour. That's why it means 'spoiled' or 'rotten' and not safe to eat.