go left

English

Etymology

Possibly an alteration of go wrong using an antonym of a different sense of the adjective right.[1]

Verb

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

(slang, idiomatic) To take a turn for the worse, to go horribly wrong.
- 2019 June 6, Ny Magee, “Ja Rule says despite colossal failure, he’d do a Fyre Festival”, in TheGrio‎:
  Two documentaries have been dedicated to exploring why the Fyre Festival went left, available on Hulu and Netflix — “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened” and “Fyre Fraud.”
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go,‎ left.

Synonyms

go south

References

Ben Zimmer (2017 May 5) “The Sinister History of ‘Going Left’”, in The Wall Street Jourrnal‎: “Ja Rule is not the first to use ‘go left’ to mean ‘go wrong,’ playing on the double meaning of ‘right.’ ”

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[1] Ben Zimmer (2017 May 5) “The Sinister History of ‘Going Left’”, in The Wall Street Jourrnal‎: “Ja Rule is not the first to use ‘go left’ to mean ‘go wrong,’ playing on the double meaning of ‘right.’ ”