go wrong

1. Fail to work properly, as in The car starts fine, but as soon as you put it in gear, the transmission goes wrong . [Late 1800s]

2. Take to evil ways, become a criminal, as in As soon as he turned thirteen, Billy fell in with a gang and began to go wrong . [c. 1500]

3. Go astray, make a mistake. For example, We made a left turn and somehow went wrong from then on , or You won't go wrong if you follow the directions in the dress pattern . [c. 1300]

4. Fail, turn out badly, as in Everything about this party has gone wrong . [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

“It was a simple idea of, ‘What if Wallace invents a smart gnome, a robot gnome, to help Gromit in the garden, and things inevitably go wrong?’

From Los Angeles Times

"They looked at every single thing that went wrong that day, including the way the calls were handled and retrained staff," she said.

From BBC

The theme of Christmas gone wrong was highly relatable to Swiss director Simon Otto, who has previously worked as an animator on How to Train Your Dragon and Enchanted.

From BBC

“So they make it very difficult to get into the diagnostic systems of these devices to find out what's going wrong.”

From Salon

Then, in July, just 17 months into his contract at the Gainesville university, Dr. Sasse resigned, sparking a host of questions about what went wrong.

From New York Times

Related Words

• err
• misconstrue
• misinterpret
• misjudge
• misread
• misunderstand
• overestimate
• overrate
• overvalue
• underestimate
• undervalue