verb phrase🎓 English idiom

go down in flames

to fail spectacularly

What it means

To go down in flames means to fail suddenly, completely, and often dramatically. It's used when a plan, project, performance, or relationship collapses in a spectacular and very public way.

Examples

  • His ambitious startup went down in flames within a single year.
  • The presentation went down in flames when the technology completely failed.
  • Their campaign went down in flames after the scandal broke.
  • I studied hard, but the exam still went down in flames for me.

Where it comes from

The phrase comes from aerial combat in the World Wars, where a hit aircraft would literally fall from the sky burning, and was later applied to any dramatic failure.

Related idioms

#hit rock bottom#pull the plug#kick the bucket#back to square one

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