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.
So where did it all go wrong at Chelsea?
From BBC • Apr. 22, 2026
A guy who only knows how to go for broke, and always doubles down when things go wrong, has to stick to his guns or the whole shtick unravels.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
A lot can go wrong in 60 years.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
There’s something covertly chilling about taking some relatively banal aspect of real life and pushing it to its most extreme lengths — and there’s also so much that could go wrong trying.
From Salon • Apr. 5, 2026
There were so many things that could go wrong that Malcolm could scarcely manage to push them all aside in his mind.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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.
