go south

go south and head South 

1. Sl. to make an escape; to disappear. (Not necessarily in a southerly direction.) Lefty went South the minute he got out of the pen. The mugger headed South just after the crime.

2. Sl. to fall; to go down. (Securities markets.) All the stock market indexes went South today. The market headed South today at the opening bell

3. Sl. to quit; to drop out of sight. Fred got discouraged and went South. I think he gave up football permanently. After pulling the bank job, Wilbur went South for a few months.

See also: south

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go south  (American informal)

to lose value or quality When oil prices went south, it caused problems right across the economy. She played well in the tennis championships, except her serve seemed to have gone south.

See also: south

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go south

1. to lose value or quality She decided to sell her stocks at the end of the year because she felt the market was going south.

2. to stop working Ralph was on a business trip to New York when his laptop computer went south.

See also: south