off the rails

Idioms  

1. In an abnormal or malfunctioning condition, as in Her political campaign has been off the rails for months. The phrase occurs commonly with go, as in Once the superintendent resigned, the effort to reform the school system went off the rails. This idiom alludes to the rails on which trains run; if a train goes off the rails, it stops or crashes. [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

“Things haven’t gone off the rails yet. The market is bending, but it isn’t breaking,” Mike Thompson said.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026

"Unfortunately, she kind of went off the rails a little."

From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026

But now on her independently produced show, she has truly gone off the rails.

From Slate • Feb. 27, 2026

Before I explain how that decision got made and why it went so spectacularly off the rails, you need to know something about the sort of person I was before I arrived in Hollywood.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 19, 2026

To pretend that things hadn’t gone off the rails and that everything was just fine now that the threat was gone.

From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau