go south

verb

Etymology

(become worse): The origin is unclear. Common belief attributes it to the standard orientation of maps, where south is the downwards direction; in this regard, compare also go downhill, decline, and drop off. Alternatively, it could stem from a euphemism used by some Native Americans for dying.

Definitions

1
To become unfavorable
To become unfavorable; to decrease; to take a turn for the worse.
- I should have walked away from the casino when my luck went south, but I stayed and ended up in the hole.
- I still had 5 miles (8 km) or so to go to cross the river when all of the controls went south. The bird pitched up, shuddered, rolled right like it was going to spin […]
2
To make an escape
To make an escape; to disappear.
- He won! A disbeliever, from childhood, in the frequency of miracles, he gathered up seven hundred and forty dollars and "went south" with it.
- […]she decided to tape the DVD off to VHS and give that to the kids -- that way she could make a fresh VHS copy when the first one went south.
To give somebody oral sex.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
1. To rathole
  To rathole: to take chips off the table in a cash game without exiting the game completely, especially with the intention of limiting losses.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for go south. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA