go to the dogs
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To become completely ruined or decayed
Literally: animals eating leftover food
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
ZIMBABWE, according to the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith, is ‘ going to the dogs’.
Going to the dogs, if you ask me.
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. 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 to the dogs” mean?
To become completely ruined or decayed Literally: animals eating leftover food
Is “go to the dogs” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.