go pear-shaped

Uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested: * From the image of a solid rectangle “slipping down” into a pear shape, thus “the bottom drops out”. ** Similar thoughts about the work of either glassblowers or potters involve a theme of the work trending toward a sagging shape; such speculations may be only folk etymology. * From the image of a balloon or football losing its spherical shape after being punctured. * From an idea that people who shoulder the work — who have the responsibility on their shoulders — may descend into shirking, in which case their broad shoulders diminish as their body becomes pear-shaped. Apparently the term was originally Royal Air Force slang, but came into common use by the 1990s.

• "After the third attack run I was letting back down to low level, passing through about 100 feet on the way down, when there were two bangs very close together. The whole aircraft shook and things went "pear-shaped" very quickly after that."
• "Now the whole world economy seems to be going pear-shaped all at once[…]."
• "Patsy dwells on this, as though on the last ordinarily weird thing she ever experienced, the last moment of sanity before it all went pear-shaped."
• "If you are asking people to make decisions, then it's very important that you support them when things go wrong, otherwise they'll never make one again … when things go pear-shaped, and occasionally they do, we try to treat it as a learning experience."
• "I hope you understand me / I ain't no preaching fucker and I ain't no do-goody-goody either / This is about when shit goes pear-shaped"
• "Once you've acknowledged that things have gone pear-shaped, you need to re-take control and move on."
• "[Gordon] Strachan was an experienced Scottish international who, under Alex Ferguson, had won European honours with Aberdeen and an FA Cup with Manchester United, but his relationship with his former mentor had gone pear-shaped."
• "They call for the economics syllabus to be rewritten to reflect the chasm between the confident mechanistic models they are still taught and the real economy which went pear-shaped."
• "There are a few cases that need to be covered, as they fall under the general umbrella of "what grids do when things go pear-shaped.""

• go downhill
• go down the toilet
• go Pete Tong
• go sideways
• go to pot
• go to shit
• go to the dogs
• turn pear-shaped

• prosper
• do well
• do well for oneself
• gain
• grow
• thrive
• flourish
• succeed

• pear-shaped
• play it pear-shaped