go down in flames
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Fail completely and dramatically
Literally: crash and burn in fire
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The new product went down in flames due to poor marketing
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “go down in flames” mean?
Fail completely and dramatically Literally: crash and burn in fire
Is “go down in flames” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.