go the way of the dodo

present singular third person goes the way of the dodo · participle present going the way of the dodo · past went the way of the dodo · participle past gone the way of the dodo · alternative go the way of the Dodo · alternative go the way of the dodo bird

1. idiomaticTo go extinct or become obsolete or defunct; to fall out of common practice or use; to become a thing of the past.

   Now that word-processing has caught on, typewriters have gone the way of the dodo.

   5 more examples

   The Polynesian population, for instance, is on the wane—wearing out—as the Red Man is—as the whale is,—going the way of the dodo, and so many other things.

   1854 November 11, “No Motu; or, Reef-rovings in the South Seas. A Narrative of Adventures at the Hawaiian, Georgian and Society Islands. By Edward T. Perkins. New York, Pudney & Russell; London, Trübner & Co.”, in The Athenæum: Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, number 1411, London: […] J[ohn] Francis. …, →OCLC, page 1361, column 1

   It is long since that disorderly potentate [the Lord of Misrule] went the way of the Dodo, and hippocras has become almost as mythical as ambrosia; but, once upon a time, they played a prominent part in legal education.

   1861 November 23, J. Hamilton Fyfe, “High Days in the Temple”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume V, number 126, New York, N.Y.: Leavitt, Trow, & Co., →OCLC, page 610, column 2

   [W]e confess that we should feel a lively satisfaction if we could see the sailor who set his dog at the helpless mass of ovine misery [sheep transported by ship across the English Channel] properly tied down in a conspicuous place on the deck of his ship, stripped to his waist, and then treated to such an allowance of the cat-of-nine-tails (if that animal has not gone the way of the dodo and the great auk) as would make him hate the taste of mutton for the rest of his natural life.

   1869 September 18, “Cattle at Sea”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 28, number 725, London: […] David Jones, […], →OCLC, page 380, column 1

   We must have game laws for the Arctic seals, and a "close time" for seals as well as for gulls, or else all these animals will go the way of the dodo.

   1876 July, “Art. VII.—1. Histoire de France, jusqu’à 1794. Par Jules Michelet, Professeur Suppléant à la Faculté des Lettres. Paris: Hachette. 1860. [et al.]”, in The London Quarterly Review, volume XLVI, number XCII, London: […] [T]he proprietors, […], →OCLC, page 440

   If the silver dollar goes the way of the dodo and the whooping crane, much of the glamour and the polish and the distinction which any entity of the Government has in celebrating its centennial will be gone.

   1964 May 27, Mike Mansfield (witness), “Statement of Hon. Mike Mansfield, a U.S. Senator from the State of Montana”, in Treasury–Post Office Departments and Executive Office Appropriations for 1965: Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, Eighty-eighth Congress, Second Session, on H.R. 10532 […], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 500

   Synonyms: go the way of the dinosaurs, go the way of the dodo bird, assume room temperature, auger in, be called home, be gathered to one's fathers, be like the the One, be no more

present singular third person goes the way of the Dodo · participle present going the way of the Dodo · past went the way of the Dodo · participle past gone the way of the Dodo

1. Alternative letter-case form of go the way of the dodo.

   The semi-formality of that era, along with any sense of attaining even a modicum of comfort in anything but first class [of an aeroplane], has gone the way of the Dodo.

   2009, Greg Stott, “Flying”, in Notes from Beyond the Fringe: Collected Works of Greg Stott, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 24

   2 more examples

   It is long since that disorderly potentate [the Lord of Misrule] went the way of the Dodo, and hippocras has become almost as mythical as ambrosia; but, once upon a time, they played a prominent part in legal education.

   1861 November 23, J. Hamilton Fyfe, “High Days in the Temple”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume V, number 126, New York, N.Y.: Leavitt, Trow, & Co., →OCLC, page 610, column 2

   If you imagine, then, that the travelling journeyman is simply an anachronism – and went the way of the Dodo, or the Luddites – there would, admittedly, be more than a grain of truth in your reaction. But you would be only partly right.

   2009, Andrew Price, “Corporate Collateral: Globalization and the Efficiency Delusion”, in Slow-tech: Manifesto for an Overwound World, London: Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 89