go south

Idioms and Phrases

Deteriorate or decline, as in The stock market is headed south again . This expression is generally thought to allude to compasses and two-dimensional maps where north is up and south is down. However, among some Native Americans, the term was a euphemism for dying, and possibly this sense led to the present usage. [ Slang ; first half of 1900s] Also see go west .

Example Sentences

If events continue to go south in a big way, the IRGC might be forced to choose between competing, compelling security priorities.

From The Daily Beast

Unfortunately, when things go south, they go south very quickly.

From The Daily Beast

The equivalent of that nerve— the most direct route to its end organ—is to go south of the equivalent of the artery.

From The Daily Beast

After all, they're not the ones who stand to lose when things inevitably go south.

From The Daily Beast

And when bets started to go south, the market, realizing that it had no way to assess the extent of the damage, freaked out.

From The Daily Beast

Write him a note, telling him you are obliged to go south to take a look at your mother's ranch.

From Project Gutenberg

Why does she go South for the same salary she has had in New Hampshire?'

From Project Gutenberg

It would be better than that to go south and make for Thibet, although even that would be a desperate expedition.

From Project Gutenberg

It was not very long after this that a party of young men set out to war, all mounted, to go south to look for the Utes.

From Project Gutenberg

Soon he must go South for his rice feast, for early in summer the birds of his clan descend upon the rice fields and lo!

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• abandon
• depart
• die
• die out
• dissipate
• dissolve
• escape
• evaporate
• expire
• fade
• flee
• fly
• go
• leave
• melt
• perish
• recede
• retire
• retreat
• sink