go up in flames
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To fail or be destroyed completely and suddenly
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
thất bại hoặc bị hủy hoại hoàn toàn và đột ngột
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to catch fire and be engulfed in flames
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The project went up in flames after the funding was pulled
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.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “go up in flames” mean?
To fail or be destroyed completely and suddenly Literally: to catch fire and be engulfed in flames
Is “go up in flames” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
What is the closest equivalent?
“bốc hoả” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.