go phut

present singular third person goes phut · participle present going phut · past went phut · participle past gone phut

1. informalTo come to an abrupt end; to cease working, especially suddenly or with a noise.

   I shall have to speak as a medical man. Ralph's nerves must have gone phut!

   1926, Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

   2 more examples

   I was well enough to revisit this realm of darkness I stumbled upon this box of plates, but imagined they had all “gone phut” as the Scotch say.

   1891 December 18, The Photographic Times, New York, page 653, column 2

   Tarvin could have hugged the child for the blessed assurance that Kate at least still lived. "Isn't she at the hospital, then?" he asked thickly. "Oh, the hospital has all gone phut. There are no women now. They all ran away."

   1892, Rudyard Kipling, Wolcott Balestier, The Naulahka: A Story of West and East, London: William Heinemann, page 259