"go to the dogs" meaning in English

See go to the dogs in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-go to the dogs.ogg Forms: goes to the dogs [present, singular, third-person], going to the dogs [participle, present], went to the dogs [past], gone to the dogs [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|go<goes,,went,gone> to the dogs}} go to the dogs (third-person singular simple present goes to the dogs, present participle going to the dogs, simple past went to the dogs, past participle gone to the dogs)
  1. (idiomatic) To decline or deteriorate shockingly. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: go to pot, go downhill, go to shit [vulgar] Translations (idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate): anar en orri (Catalan), naar de filistijnen gaan (Dutch), naar de knoppen gaan (Dutch), naar de kloten gaan (Dutch), naar de verdoemenis gaan (Dutch), ränsistyä (Finnish), rapistua (Finnish), aller à vau-l’eau (French), vor die Hunde gehen (German), fara í hundana (Icelandic), andare a male (Italian), andare a rotoli (Italian), gå i hundene (Norwegian Bokmål), gå i hundane (Norwegian Nynorsk), se desanar (Occitan), èsser emportat coma per un corrent (Occitan), anar al fil de l'aiga (Occitan), schodzić na psy (Polish), пойти́ по́ миру (pojtí pó miru) [perfective] (Russian), irse al diablo (Spanish), al traste (Spanish), ndare a remengo (Venetan), ndar a remengo (Venetan), ndare in mona (Venetan), ndar in mona (Venetan)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the dogs"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the dogs (third-person singular simple present goes to the dogs, present participle going to the dogs, simple past went to the dogs, past participle gone to the dogs)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter 42, in Far from the Madding Crowd:",
          "text": "\"[T]he merry old ways of good life have gone to the dogs—upon my carcase, they have!\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter L, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 264:",
          "text": "Poor devil, he's gone to the dogs altogether. He's got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandria—sanitary officer or something like that. I'm told he lives with an ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 February 3, Evan Thomas, \"Bring Back the Exploding Cigars\" (review of See No Evil by Robert Baer), New York Times (retrieved 17 Feb 2018)",
          "text": "\"The C.I.A. was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism and much more.\" . . . Baer, who quit the agency four years ago, says he is angry about all this, but he clearly has a good time recounting how the C.I.A. went to the dogs."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To decline or deteriorate shockingly."
      ],
      "id": "en-go_to_the_dogs-en-verb-X4milL2r",
      "links": [
        [
          "decline",
          "decline"
        ],
        [
          "deteriorate",
          "deteriorate"
        ],
        [
          "shockingly",
          "shockingly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To decline or deteriorate shockingly."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "go to pot"
        },
        {
          "word": "go downhill"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "vulgar"
          ],
          "word": "go to shit"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "anar en orri"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "naar de filistijnen gaan"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "naar de knoppen gaan"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "naar de kloten gaan"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "naar de verdoemenis gaan"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "ränsistyä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "rapistua"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "aller à vau-l’eau"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "vor die Hunde gehen"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "fara í hundana"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "andare a male"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "andare a rotoli"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "gå i hundene"
        },
        {
          "code": "nn",
          "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "gå i hundane"
        },
        {
          "code": "oc",
          "lang": "Occitan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "se desanar"
        },
        {
          "code": "oc",
          "lang": "Occitan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "èsser emportat coma per un corrent"
        },
        {
          "code": "oc",
          "lang": "Occitan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "anar al fil de l'aiga"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "schodzić na psy"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "pojtí pó miru",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "пойти́ по́ миру"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "irse al diablo"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "al traste"
        },
        {
          "code": "vec",
          "lang": "Venetan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "ndare a remengo"
        },
        {
          "code": "vec",
          "lang": "Venetan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "ndar a remengo"
        },
        {
          "code": "vec",
          "lang": "Venetan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "ndare in mona"
        },
        {
          "code": "vec",
          "lang": "Venetan",
          "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
          "word": "ndar in mona"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-go to the dogs.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/34/En-au-go_to_the_dogs.ogg/En-au-go_to_the_dogs.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/En-au-go_to_the_dogs.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the dogs"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the dogs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the dogs"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the dogs (third-person singular simple present goes to the dogs, present participle going to the dogs, simple past went to the dogs, past participle gone to the dogs)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English light verb constructions",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Terms with Catalan translations",
        "Terms with Dutch translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Icelandic translations",
        "Terms with Italian translations",
        "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
        "Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations",
        "Terms with Occitan translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "Terms with Venetan translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter 42, in Far from the Madding Crowd:",
          "text": "\"[T]he merry old ways of good life have gone to the dogs—upon my carcase, they have!\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter L, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 264:",
          "text": "Poor devil, he's gone to the dogs altogether. He's got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandria—sanitary officer or something like that. I'm told he lives with an ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 February 3, Evan Thomas, \"Bring Back the Exploding Cigars\" (review of See No Evil by Robert Baer), New York Times (retrieved 17 Feb 2018)",
          "text": "\"The C.I.A. was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism and much more.\" . . . Baer, who quit the agency four years ago, says he is angry about all this, but he clearly has a good time recounting how the C.I.A. went to the dogs."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To decline or deteriorate shockingly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "decline",
          "decline"
        ],
        [
          "deteriorate",
          "deteriorate"
        ],
        [
          "shockingly",
          "shockingly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To decline or deteriorate shockingly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-go to the dogs.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/En-au-go_to_the_dogs.ogg"
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  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "go to pot"
    },
    {
      "word": "go downhill"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "vulgar"
      ],
      "word": "go to shit"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "anar en orri"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "naar de filistijnen gaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "naar de knoppen gaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "naar de kloten gaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "naar de verdoemenis gaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "ränsistyä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "rapistua"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "aller à vau-l’eau"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "vor die Hunde gehen"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "fara í hundana"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "andare a male"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "andare a rotoli"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "gå i hundene"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "gå i hundane"
    },
    {
      "code": "oc",
      "lang": "Occitan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "se desanar"
    },
    {
      "code": "oc",
      "lang": "Occitan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "èsser emportat coma per un corrent"
    },
    {
      "code": "oc",
      "lang": "Occitan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "anar al fil de l'aiga"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "schodzić na psy"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "pojtí pó miru",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "пойти́ по́ миру"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "irse al diablo"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "al traste"
    },
    {
      "code": "vec",
      "lang": "Venetan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "ndare a remengo"
    },
    {
      "code": "vec",
      "lang": "Venetan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "ndar a remengo"
    },
    {
      "code": "vec",
      "lang": "Venetan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "ndare in mona"
    },
    {
      "code": "vec",
      "lang": "Venetan",
      "sense": "idiomatic: to decline or deteriorate",
      "word": "ndar in mona"
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the dogs"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.

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