go pear-shaped

present singular third person goes pear-shaped · participle present going pear-shaped · past went pear-shaped · participle past gone pear-shaped · alternative go pearshaped · alternative go pear shaped

1. CommonwealthIrelandUKespeciallyidiomaticintransitiveTo go awry; to go wrong.First known use 1980s

   Now the whole world economy seems to be going pear-shaped all at once[…].

   1991 January 7, Tim Power, quoting David Coles, “The business of survival”, in Evening Post, Reading, Berkshire: Thames Valley Newspapers, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 2

   5 more examples

   After the third attack run I was letting back down to low level, passing through about 100 feet on the way down, when there were two bangs very close together. The whole aircraft shook and things went "pear-shaped" very quickly after that.

   1983, Jeffrey Ethell, Alfred Price, quoting Bob Iveson, “To Goose Green and Beyond, 26 May – 7 June”, in Air War: South Atlantic (The Air Combat Trilogy; 3), New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 158–159

   Patsy dwells on this, as though on the last ordinarily weird thing she ever experienced, the last moment of sanity before it all went pear-shaped.

   1993 October 16, Sally Vincent, “Lost boys”, in Peter Preston, editor, The Guardian Weekend, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 1

   If you are asking people to make decisions, then it's very important that you support them when things go wrong, otherwise they'll never make one again … when things go pear-shaped, and occasionally they do, we try to treat it as a learning experience.

   1998, Michael Armstrong, quoting Tina Mason, “Team Building”, in Managing People: A Practical Guide for Line Managers, London: Kogan Page, published 2001, →ISBN, part 2 (Managing People – the Basic Skills), page 39

   I hope you understand me / I ain't no preaching fucker and I ain't no do-goody-goody either / This is about when shit goes pear-shaped

   2002 March 25, “Stay Positive”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets

   Once you've acknowledged that things have gone pear-shaped, you need to re-take control and move on.

   2008, Nicholas Bate, “What to Do if It Goes Awry”, in Have It Your Way: 52 Brilliant Ideas for Getting Everything You Want, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Infinite Ideas Company, →ISBN, page 38

   Synonyms: go downhill, go down the toilet, go Pete Tong, go sideways, go to pot, go to shit, go to the dogs, turn pear-shaped · Antonyms: prosper, do well, do well for oneself, gain, grow, thrive, flourish, succeed