come to grief

Idioms  

1. Meet with disaster or failure. For example, The icy runway caused at least one light plane to come to grief. [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

come to grief

Two oilmen would come to grief, more or less, in the 1920s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2023

And, like other presidents who mistook their mandate, his administration has come to grief.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2021

Two of the 30 fences were missed out for the first time in 164 runnings of the National as runners were ordered to bypass obstacles where the stricken horses had come to grief.

From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2011

Martin Van Jaarsveld, with 44 from 72 balls, plotted Kent's route to victory, a route that briefly threatened to come to grief as they lost four wickets for 14 runs in three overs.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 16, 2010

The rest could run away and come to grief as they might.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams