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Synonyms

go bad

Idioms  

  1. Spoil, decay; also, turn to crime. For example, You can tell from the smell that this milk has gone bad, or If he keeps running around with that street gang, he's sure to go bad. [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.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to prove that’s the case—or that the good won’t go bad.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

“Whatever asset you’re looking at people are on a knife’s edge regarding leverage and that doesn’t have to go bad; that can go very very well before it goes very, very bad,” he said.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 18, 2026

And because bananas go bad quickly, companies are generally unable to build up large inventories ahead of tariffs the way some did with electronics or furniture.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

I woke up the next morning, slightly panicked, cataloguing in my head how I would need to freeze and label the meat and seafood so it doesn’t go bad before we use it all.

From Salon • May 1, 2025

Even more shocking was that the terms of the loans were changing, in ways that increased the likelihood they would go bad.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

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.