go down the pan
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Become lost or deterioriate.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The Mimosa is going down the pan faster than Dynorod could.
Oh yes, they are still going down the pan, to the tune of £1 billion a year in the UK, according to the Management Consultancies Association.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “go down the pan” mean?
Become lost or deterioriate.
Is “go down the pan” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.