a goner

Idioms  

1. Something or someone that is dead, doomed, ruined, or past recovery, as in If this new drug doesn't work, he's a goner; or Without a working transmission, my car's a goner. Synonyms of this idiom, such as, are no longer heard as much. [Slang; mid-1800s]

---

Example Sentences

That means if it’s separated from the ants it parasitizes, it’s a goner.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

And they have concluded the number, but not the policy itself, is an albatross around their neck - and so it is a goner.

From BBC • Feb. 7, 2024

It’s a goner, he thought — far too damaged to even think about trying to repair.

From Washington Post • Nov. 6, 2022

Then when the camera lingered on his departure from Dragonstone, until the little boy on his little dragon faded into the night, I was sure he was a goner.

From New York Times • Oct. 23, 2022

“And I’d be a goner if you hadn’t yelled at her and made her come at you,” George said.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz