go pear-shaped
(intransitive, especially, UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, idiomatic) To go awry; to go wrong.
Definitions
(intransitive, especially, UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, idiomatic) To go awry; to go wrong.
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.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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(slang, Commonwealth, UK, Irish) Wrong, awry, usually in the phrase go pear-shaped.
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(UK, Irish, Commonwealth, informal) Crooked, askew; awry.
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