come a cropper

slang

1. To fall down. Primarily heard in UK. These shoes are too big and caused me to come a cropper as I was walking down the street. Don't worry about the baby—now that she's learning to walk, she comes a cropper every few minutes, it seems. Stay off those icy steps or you'll come a cropper!

2. To fail completely. Primarily heard in UK. Once heralded as a future star of the tech world, Shane came a cropper when his product proved to be a dud. I'm worried that my father's company is going to come a cropper because of the incompetent new CEO. Mum, please don't get sucked into Rich's latest scheme—you know they all come a cropper.

come a-cropper

To fail badly. “Cropper” comes from a horse's croup or crupper, the part of the animal's back behind the saddle. Someone who parted company from his horse (an involuntary dismount, so to speak) was said to fall “neck and crop.” That became “come a-cropper,” first appearing in the foxhunting author Robert S. Surtees' 1858 novel Ask Mamma: [He] “rode at an impracticable fence, and got a cropper for his pains.” The phrase was picked up and applied to any misadventure, equestrian or otherwise.