GO WRONG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does go wrong mean? 

• GO WRONG (verb)
  The verb GO WRONG has 1 sense:

1. be unsuccessful

  Familiarity information: GO WRONG used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GO WRONG (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be unsuccessful

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

fail; go wrong; miscarry

Context example:

The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "go wrong"):

take it on the chin (undergo failure or defeat)

miss (fail to reach or get to)

overreach (fail by aiming too high or trying too hard)

ball up; blow; bobble; bodge; bollix; bollix up; bollocks; bollocks up; botch; botch up; bumble; bungle; flub; fluff; foul up; fuck up; fumble; louse up; mess up; mishandle; muck up; muff; screw up; spoil (make a mess of, destroy or ruin)

strike out (be unsuccessful in an endeavor)

fall (suffer defeat, failure, or ruin)

shipwreck (suffer failure, as in some enterprise)

fall flat; fall through; flop; founder (fail utterly; collapse)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

People near you will be fragile, and something is likely to go wrong.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

No wonder a lot of things can go wrong.

(Foot Injuries and Disorders, NIH)

If you are a good son to her you will never go wrong.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So far as I can see, it is just as tangled a business as ever I handled, and yet at first it seemed so simple that one couldn’t go wrong.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake’s sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

"For I have faith in your love, not fear of their enmity. All things may go astray in this world, but not love. Love cannot go wrong unless it be a weakling that faints and stumbles by the way."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Uranus rules computers, software, and all things high-tech, so this is a possible area of concern, and Murphy’s Law—“If anything can go wrong, it will”—will surely be at play.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Whatever the cause, Colonel Moran began to go wrong.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)