go wrong
Idioms-
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.
And then there’s the constant anticipation that something else will go wrong.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
If things do go wrong, she said "try and remain calm" and "float to live".
From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026
Without enough B12, things can go wrong, sometimes seriously, especially if deficiency is not recognized and treated.
From Science Daily • May 27, 2026
War is always treated as the ultimate activity of the state, with much apocalyptic hand-wringing when wars go wrong.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 26, 2026
"Well, you can't really go wrong," I tell her, stopping short of the truth: Whatever you do, they'll eat it up.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
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.
