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]

---

Example Sentences

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

From MarketWatch

My future had already gone off the rails, even if they didn’t realize it; I had already gone to France.

From Literature

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

From BBC

So when things went off the rails, so to speak, all he’d have to do was go back to those history books tucked safely in the past, and check to see if the current history matched.

From Literature

“Obviously, this test went off the rails.”

From Literature