go pear-shaped
/ˌɡəʊ ˈpeə ʃeɪpt/INFORMAL · B2
Meaning
to start to fail and turn out badly
Examples
- 1Our camping trip went pear-shaped when the car broke down on the motorway.
- 2Everything was fine until the last week, and then the whole project went pear-shaped.
- 3The surprise party went pear-shaped when Leo arrived home an hour early and saw everything.
- 4If the builders don't turn up on Monday, our whole plan could go pear-shaped.
- 5Things started going pear-shaped as soon as the laptop froze during my presentation.
Grammar
Only go changes: goes, going, went, gone. pear-shaped is written with a hyphen.
Similar in meaning
More idioms about problems and trouble
All 20 idioms and the topic quiz →open a can of wormsto start dealing with something that causes many new problemsa vicious circlea situation where one problem causes another that makes the first worseface the musicto accept criticism or punishment for something you didrock the boatto upset a calm situation and cause problemsthrow a spanner in the worksto do something that stops a plan from succeedingsweep something under the carpetto hide a problem instead of dealing with it
English Idioms400 idioms in 20 topics — with reviews that keep them from fading
Here you get a couple of questions. The app gives you 16 practice modes, native equivalents and spaced repetition that tells you when it’s time to refresh.
