go wrong
Americanphrase
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to malfunction; to interfere with a process so that it fails (usually used with the indefinite subject something).
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to take an incorrect path or turn so as to become lost.
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to make an unwise choice or decision or apply faulty logic, leading to a bad conclusion or course of action.
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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.
It was getting more and more intense and I didn't want anything to go wrong.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Plenty of things can go wrong on the ship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
"When things go wrong in the royal family, people tend to blame anyone but the king," historian Trond Norén Isaksen remarked.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
Yardeni: There are a lot of things that can go wrong.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
Once I was set, we went to Abel to get the keys to the BMW, and that was the moment the whole night started to go wrong.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
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.
