kerflooey

[ ker-floo-ee ]

adverb

, go kerflooey,

1. Informal. to cease functioning, especially suddenly and completely; fall apart; fail:

   As soon as the storm hit, every light in town went kerflooey.

Word History and Origins

Origin of kerflooey¹

ker-, flooey

Example Sentences

“He thought when everything went kerflooey, this is where he would go. The island itself is so beautiful. There’s an area called Chieftain’s Leap, with soaring cliffs, where peregrine falcons make their nests.”

From New York Times

“It’s like my cells went kerflooey last year when they met Covid,” she said, and the “vaccine said, ‘Wait, you dopes, that isn’t how you fight this, do it this way.’”

From New York Times

“It’s like my cells went kerflooey last year when they met COVID-19,” Gross said, and the “vaccine said, ‘Wait, you dopes, that isn’t how you fight this; do it this way.’”

From Seattle Times

The gas stayshun don’t work no more cuz the fission generator that made the gas went kerflooey last year and just sits there beside the gas stayshun like a hulking ugly hurt toe and no one’d live next to it except Mr. Hammar and Mr. Hammar’s much worse than Mr. Phelps cuz he’ll aim his Noise right at you.

From Literature

The transversality condition is the constraint in the program that nothing can be projected to go to infinity—i.e., go kerflooey.

From BusinessWeek