go wrong
Americanphrase
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to malfunction; to interfere with a process so that it fails (usually used with the indefinite subject something).
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to take an incorrect path or turn so as to become lost.
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to make an unwise choice or decision or apply faulty logic, leading to a bad conclusion or course of action.
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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]
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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]
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Fail, turn out badly, as in Everything about this party has gone wrong . [Late 1500s]
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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]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Call it Murphy’s law, the idea that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Virtually everything worked in big banks’ favor in the second quarter, but there is no shortage of things that could go wrong.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“People don’t want to think about what could go wrong on vacation when they’re planning one,” said Suzanne Morrow, chief executive at InsureMyTrip, a travel-insurance comparison business.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Just how much did that impact the US team, and where did it ultimately go wrong for Mauricio Pochettino's side?
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
Every job, no matter how small, needed to be thought through before it was started, from beginning to end, with particular attention paid to what might go wrong in between.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
