Home UK English go wrong

Meaning of go wrong in English:

go wrong

See synonyms for go wrong

phrase

  • 1Make a mistake.

    ‘The big area where I personally went wrong was in estimating GDP growth.’
    • ‘But in the meantime education and information initiatives would be introduced to let people know where they were going wrong.’
    • ‘I don't know where I've gone wrong.’
    • ‘I'm not happy with this - I've gone wrong somewhere, but I don't have time to explore it right now.’
    • ‘Can either of you point out where he's gone wrong?’
    • ‘Deciding we must have gone wrong somewhere, we rode all the way back.’
    • ‘Let me tell you where you went wrong.’
    • ‘After the exam don't spend endless time criticising yourself for where you think you went wrong.’
    • ‘Finding out where you went wrong is crucial, but may not be easy.’
    • ‘I told him to stay on the motorway until we got near Warwick but after half an hour he went wrong again.’
    make a mistake, make an error, err, make a blunder, blunder, go astray, miscalculate, be incorrect, be wide of the mark, trip up
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    1. 1.1(of a device) malfunction; develop a fault.
      ‘It is equally easy to determine what went wrong with that machine.’
      • ‘However, little things in the computer are starting to go wrong now.’
      • ‘It's the washing machine that's gone wrong.’
      • ‘One in seven mobile phone handsets goes wrong within a year, according to consumer watchdog Which?’
      • ‘The heating went wrong and the phone to the front desk didn't work.’
      • ‘Even at work, it is useful to learn some of the basic things that can go wrong with your computer, so that you don't yell for a technician every time the power plug falls out of the wall socket.’
      • ‘While there may be more things to go wrong on a modern car, manufacturers claim they are less likely to do so.’
      • ‘Most things that can go wrong with a PC do so in the first few months.’
      • ‘If your PC goes wrong and needs rebuilding from scratch, it can be a lot quicker simply sticking in a tape and restoring the whole shooting match including Windows, Applications and data in one hit.’
      • ‘I'm the guy he always calls when something is going wrong with his computer.’
      break down, malfunction, fail, stop working, stop functioning, cease to function, crash, give out, go out of control, develop a fault, act up, be defective
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    2. 1.2Develop in an undesirable way.
      ‘whenever things went wrong she would blame us’
      • ‘He must be tearing his hair out right now because the team are going through one of those spells where everything that can go wrong, is going wrong.’
      • ‘If things are going wrong, we need to know that they are going wrong, so we can put them right.’
      • ‘She had a great turn of phrase and sense of humour and could see the funny side even when things went wrong.’
      • ‘Now, as an inquiry takes place into what went wrong, it is vital to ensure that nothing like this occurs again.’
      • ‘Everything always went wrong, and they never had any money to do the things they wanted.’
      • ‘Now they are performing a deconstruction of the chase and trying to find out what went wrong.’
      • ‘However, things all went wrong when she helped the attendant to push the car out of the way and into a transformer.’
      • ‘The guy could not explain what went wrong because their account machinery was down.’
      • ‘You can look at six or seven line-outs and pinpoint one thing that went wrong in each of them.’
      • ‘As I tried to reach over and lift up the gate it crossed my mind that there might be a danger of me losing a finger if things went wrong.’
      go awry, go amiss, go adrift, go off course, fail, not succeed, be unsuccessful, go badly, be ruined, fall through, fall flat, fall apart, come apart at the seams, break down, come to nothing, flounder, collapse, meet with disaster, backfire, rebound, boomerang, misfire, miscarry, abort
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