go to pot

1. To decline or deteriorate: “Since most of the businesses moved out to the suburbs, my old neighborhood has really gone to pot.”

Idioms and Phrases

Also, go to the dogs . Deteriorate, decline; come to a bad end. For example, My lawn has gone to pot during the drought , or The city schools are going to the dogs . The first of these colloquial expressions dates from the late 1500s and alludes to inferior pieces of meat being cut up for the stewpot. The second, from the 1600s, alludes to the traditional view of dogs as inferior creatures. Also see rack and ruin ; run to seed .

Example Sentences

“As my dad said, ‘As long as you can feed yourself, the whole world can go to pot, mijo, and you’ll be OK,’” he cracked.

From Los Angeles Times

Has Canada's legal cannabis industry gone to pot?

From BBC

"It gets really tiring constantly adapting, every plan you make goes to pot."

From BBC

And then, of course, it all goes to pot, with a couple of nifty red herrings and plot twists spicing up the script.

From New York Times

She said after months of training and making plans, "everything we put into place went to pot".

From BBC

Related Words

• crumble
• decline
• degrade
• depreciate
• disintegrate
• ebb
• fade
• fail
• fall apart
• languish
• lessen
• lower
• regress
• sink
• slide
• undermine
• weaken
• worsen