go belly-up

verb — 2 senses

go belly-up

verb

Etymology From the tendency of fish to float upside down when they die.

1

Informal To die.

2

Informal To fail or fold; especially, to be closed or shut down, or go out of business.

  • I was sorry to hear that my favorite little restaurant went belly-up.
Synonyms
go bankrupt

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.