down the khazi

9.9

People say it when something is lost, wasted, or ruined and when someone goes to the toilet

idiom

Archaic

: por el desagüe

After his company went bankrupt, all his investments went down the khazi.

Examples

I really need to go down the khazi before the meeting starts.
She felt her hard work had gone down the khazi after failing the exam.
I can't believe I threw my phone down the khazi!
He lost his wallet down the khazi last night.
After the party, all that leftover food went down the khazi.
I need to go down the khazi quickly before we leave the house.
She was upset that her plans went down the khazi due to the rain.

Synonyms

down the pan

vsdown the khazi

1 9.9

Completely ruined or wasted and no longer useful

also refers to actual toilet use rather than only ruin

Antonyms

saved

14 1.0

A person or thing kept safe from harm

Surface Forms

down the khazi main

Morphology

down + the + khazi

If a learner knows 'khazi' as slang for 'toilet' and the sense of 'down' implying movement into or being out of use, they can infer a figurative meaning of something being thrown away, ruined, or lost (i.e. ‘sent down the toilet’). Because this is slang and relies on a cultural/metaphorical extension rather than a fully compositional, standard pattern, it is not fully predictable for an average B1 learner without exposure.

Etymology

The phrase down the khazi may come from British slang where khazi is a word for the 'toilet'. Imagine something being flushed away — going down the khazi — and you can see why it now means 'lost', 'wasted', or 'ruined', and it also keeps the literal sense of 'going to the toilet'.