up the boohai
- idiom
- New Zealand
:
salió mal
- The plan was well-intentioned, but it soon went up the boohai after a series of mistakes.
Examples
-
If we miss today's deadline, this project could go up the boohai.
-
Everything went up the boohai during the event!
-
After the main investor pulled out, the whole deal went up the boohai.
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It seems like the project has gone up the boohai.
-
After the main investor pulled out, the whole deal went up the boohai.
-
If we miss today's deadline, this project could go up the boohai.
-
The plan was well-intentioned, but it soon went up the boohai after a series of mistakes.
Synonyms
1
9.9
Completely ruined or wasted and no longer useful
1
9.9
A very bad situation with no way to fix it
1
9.9
To be in a difficult situation with no way out
Antonyms
How Bad
- Offensive
161
9.9
- New Zealand
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
up + the + boohai
This is an idiomatic, regional NZ expression where the overall meaning (‘gone wrong / failed completely’) cannot be derived from the literal parts 'up' + 'the' + 'boohai'—especially since 'boohai' is non-transparent or unknown. The pattern parallels idioms like 'up the creek' and requires lexicalized knowledge or cultural exposure rather than compositional inference, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably predict the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
The saying up the boohai may come from the image of something thrown into a deep, useless hole called a boohai. If something ends up in that hole it is lost or ruined, so the phrase now means 'gone wrong' or 'failed completely'.