"go to the bow-wows" meaning in English

See go to the bow-wows in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: goes to the bow-wows [present, singular, third-person], going to the bow-wows [participle, present], went to the bow-wows [past], gone to the bow-wows [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|go<goes,,went,gone> to the bow-wows}} go to the bow-wows (third-person singular simple present goes to the bow-wows, present participle going to the bow-wows, simple past went to the bow-wows, past participle gone to the bow-wows)
  1. (dated, idiomatic, informal) To go to the dogs, to decline or deteriorate. Tags: dated, idiomatic, informal
    Sense id: en-go_to_the_bow-wows-en-verb-x9ZJuOVz Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for go to the bow-wows meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the bow-wows"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the bow-wows (third-person singular simple present goes to the bow-wows, present participle going to the bow-wows, simple past went to the bow-wows, past participle gone to the bow-wows)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1896, Arthur G. Burgoyne, “Timon of Athens” in Shakespeare Up to Date, and Other Latter-Day Lyrics, Pittsburg: T. W. Nevin, p. 16,\nWith lavish hand his cash he spent,\nAnd with lightning speed to the bow-wows went\nAnd into the gutter fell."
        },
        {
          "text": "1912, James Oneal, Militant Socialism, Saint Louis: The National RipSaw Publishing Co., p. 28,\nThe robber barons of the Middle Ages were perfectly sure that civilization would go to the bow-wows if they were interfered with."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1928, Dorothy L. Sayers, “The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach”, in A Treasury of Sayers Stories, London: Victor Gollancz, published 1961, page 288",
          "text": "His father died a couple of years ago—he was a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh—and I fancy Robert has rather gone to the bow-wows since then. Got among a cheerful crowd down there, don't you know, and wasted his substance somewhat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To go to the dogs, to decline or deteriorate."
      ],
      "id": "en-go_to_the_bow-wows-en-verb-x9ZJuOVz",
      "links": [
        [
          "go to the dogs",
          "go to the dogs"
        ],
        [
          "decline",
          "decline"
        ],
        [
          "deteriorate",
          "deteriorate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, idiomatic, informal) To go to the dogs, to decline or deteriorate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the bow-wows"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the bow-wows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the bow-wows"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the bow-wows (third-person singular simple present goes to the bow-wows, present participle going to the bow-wows, simple past went to the bow-wows, past participle gone to the bow-wows)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1896, Arthur G. Burgoyne, “Timon of Athens” in Shakespeare Up to Date, and Other Latter-Day Lyrics, Pittsburg: T. W. Nevin, p. 16,\nWith lavish hand his cash he spent,\nAnd with lightning speed to the bow-wows went\nAnd into the gutter fell."
        },
        {
          "text": "1912, James Oneal, Militant Socialism, Saint Louis: The National RipSaw Publishing Co., p. 28,\nThe robber barons of the Middle Ages were perfectly sure that civilization would go to the bow-wows if they were interfered with."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1928, Dorothy L. Sayers, “The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach”, in A Treasury of Sayers Stories, London: Victor Gollancz, published 1961, page 288",
          "text": "His father died a couple of years ago—he was a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh—and I fancy Robert has rather gone to the bow-wows since then. Got among a cheerful crowd down there, don't you know, and wasted his substance somewhat.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To go to the dogs, to decline or deteriorate."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "go to the dogs",
          "go to the dogs"
        ],
        [
          "decline",
          "decline"
        ],
        [
          "deteriorate",
          "deteriorate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, idiomatic, informal) To go to the dogs, to decline or deteriorate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the bow-wows"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.