go to the dogs | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)Todeclineordeteriorateshockingly.1874,Thomas Hardy, chapter 42, inFar from the Madding Crowd:"[T]he merry old ways of good life havegone to the dogs—upon my carcase, they have!"1919,W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter L, inThe Moon and Sixpence,[New York, N.Y.]:Grosset & Dunlap Publishers[…],→OCLC,page264:Poor devil, he'sgone to the dogsaltogether. He's got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandria—sanitary officer or something like that. I'm told he lives with an ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids.2002February 3,Evan Thomas, "Bring Back the Exploding Cigars" (review ofSee No EvilbyRobert Baer),New York Times(retrieved 17 Feb 2018):"The C.I.A. was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism and much more." . . . Baer, who quit the agency four years ago, says he is angry about all this, but he clearly has a good time recounting how the C.I.A.went to the dogs.

Examples:

EN: We can't get along without Walton. The business will go to the dogs.
ES: Sin él, los negocios fracasarán.
EN: If Zieten doesn't come soon, we'll go to the dogs.
ES: ¡Si Zieten no viene pronto, estamos perdidos!
EN: - And also because my business will go to the dogs.
ES: - Y también porque así mi negocio de molinillos se va al garete.
EN: If the country doesn't go to the dogs or the Radicals, we'll have you Prime Minister, some day.
ES: Si no echamos el país a los perros o a los radicales usted será primer ministro algún día.
EN: Julie, a Catholic priest can go to the dogs, but he can't go to the devil.
ES: Vamos.
EN: No, I thought I might go to the dogs.
ES: No yo... querría ir a las carreras de perros.
EN: You want to watch it go to the dogs?
ES: ¿Quiere seguir mirando cómo se hunde todo?
EN: You'll just go to the dogs.
ES: Usted es basura, un cubo de basura.
EN: We can't just go to the dogs.
ES: No podemos hundirnos en la miseria sin más.
EN: You'll go to the dogs in a different way with the SA.
ES: La SA es peor que hundirse enla miseria.
EN: Let this damn war go to the dogs.
ES: Deja esta maldita guerra para los perros.
EN: If I can make some money, I'll go to the dogs.
ES: Si consigo dinero, iré a los perros.
EN: - I can go to the dogs.
ES: - Puedo ir a los perros.
EN: - Let's go to the dogs.
ES: - Vamos a los perros.
EN: BILLY: We can go to the dogs now.
ES: - Ahora podemos ir a los perros.

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