go to pot

present singular third person goes to pot · participle present going to pot · past went to pot · participle past gone to pot

1. figurativelyTo come to ruin, especially to decline or deteriorate.

   They haven't been maintaining it, and the downtown area has really gone to pot over the past 20 years.

   1 more example

   Iacke Straw. […] I haue his wife and children pledges, for his ſpeedie returne from the King, to whom he is gone with our meſſage. Tom Miller. Let him take heede hee bring a wiſe anſwere to our worships, or els his pledges goes to the pot.

   1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I

   Synonyms: go to shit

2. archaicdismissalGo to hell; an angry dismissal.

   At this moment the rabbit sprang from his arms and disappeared among the brush wood. "Go to pot," said the man, "you are a good-for-nothing dry-meated beast, to make the best of you."

   1837 September 20, William Cullen Bryant, Calhoun’s Diminished Stature

   Synonyms: go to the dogs, go downhill