go down in flames
Collapse in disaster
To go down in flames is to fail spectacularly and publicly, often after high expectations.
The image comes from aircraft crashing in fiery destruction—dramatic, visible, total.
His presidential campaign went down in flames after the scandal broke.
The phrase emphasizes not just failure but its conspicuous, sometimes humiliating nature.
- go southWorsen or decline
- nosediveSudden steep descent
- tankLarge storage vessel
- declineDecrease or refuse
- collapseSudden structural failure
go belly up · debacle · failure · epic fail · fiasco · downfall · go up in smoke · disgrace · fall from grace · flop · humiliation · infamy · ruin · conflagration · blow up in one's face · train wreck · spectacle · doomed
go down in flamessucceed
Achieve a desired aim
triumph · win · come out on top · prevail · pull it off
go down in flamesfizzle out
Fail after promising start
peter out · soft landing · wind down · taper off · gradual decline
goes, gone, going, down, downer, downs, downed, downing, flame