head south
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to decline or deteriorate
Literally: to move in a southern direction
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The backwater village of 3,000 inhabitants, 250 km south - east of Paris, was once an obligatory stopping - off point for travellers headed south for the Riviera.
The approval ratings for Russia ’s president and prime ~ minister are heading south.
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 “head south” mean?
to decline or deteriorate Literally: to move in a southern direction
Is “head south” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.