go to pot

Etymology

Figuratively be cut up and tossed into a pot like meat.

Pronunciation

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Verb

go to pot (third-person singular simple present goes to pot, present participle going to pot, simple past went to pot, past participle gone to pot)

1. (figuratively) To come to ruin, especially to decline or deteriorate.

   They haven't been maintaining it, and the downtown area has really gone to pot over the past 20 years.

   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

     Iacke Straw. […] I haue his wife and children pledges, for his ſpeedie returne from the King, to whom he is gone with our meſſage.
     Tom Miller. Let him take heede hee bring a wiſe anſwere to our worships, or els his pledges goes to the pot.

   • 2023 September 22, HarryBlank, “Off Track”, in SCP Foundation‎, archived from the original on 25 May 2024:

     "Just stating facts. Novel thing in my line." The theologian stubbed out her cigarette on what appeared to be an antique ashtray. "Reynders is way off the beaten path on a good day, and we haven't had one of those in almost a year of days. With the damage done in the fighting—"

     "What fighting?" Udo interrupted.

     Corbin sighed. "This place went to pot separate from the main Site, obviously. And it went fast, with all those guns to kick around. Superstructure took a lot of hits. Only gets worse the deeper you get, and Reynders is in pretty deep."

2. (archaic) Go to hell. (an angry dismissal)
   • 1837 September 20, William Cullen Bryant, Calhoun’s Diminished Stature:

     At this moment the rabbit sprang from his arms and disappeared among the brush wood. "Go to pot," said the man, "you are a good-for-nothing dry-meated beast, to make the best of you."