go belly-up

The idiom "go belly-up" compares a failed entity to a dead fish floating on the surface, belly facing upwards.

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ US Voice:
πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ UK Voice:

Definition

B2Business

(informal)To go bankrupt or cease operations.

Example

  • The company went belly-up after years of financial struggles.

B2General

(informal)To fail or collapse completely.

Example

  • The project went belly-up due to lack of funding.

Similar

Terms that have similar or relatively close meanings to "go belly-up":

belly upcome a cropperbite the dusttits upkick the bucketdie on one's arsecash in one's chipsbelly floptake a divekeel overgo underdie in the assfall off one's perchfall flat on one's facego badgo to potturn turtletake a tumblebelly outgo up in flamesgo up in smokelay an eggfall updie on the vineconk outsink like a stonegive up the ghostbomb outfall throughfall overgob upbite the big onego to shitbreathe one's lastfall downgo for brokedrop deadflake outdie offgo downgo by the boardtoes upbell updie awaygo sourgo down like a lead zeppelin