go pear-shaped
Go badly wrong
Go pear-shaped means to go wrong or fail, especially when something that started well deteriorates badly.
British in origin and still more common there than in American English: The project went pear-shaped after the lead developer quit.
The image suggests a round thing losing its proper form, sagging or distorting under pressure.
- fall apartBreak into pieces
- fall to piecesFragment completely, lose cohesion
- awryCrooked or wrong
- misfireFailure to discharge
- failBe unsuccessful
come apart at the seams · go off the rails · crash and burn · balls up · botch · come a cropper · hit the skids · go south · go belly up · backfire · blow up in your face · unravel · down the drain · go wrong · come unstuck · go down the tubes · fiasco · bugger up
go pear-shapedsucceed
Achieve a desired aim
work out · come off · pan out · come together · fall into place
go pear-shapedstay on track
sail through · stay the course · chug along · flow · breeze through
shape, shaped, pear, shaping, goes, reshape, shapes, pears, shapeless