C2idiominformalbusiness
go belly up
USUK
(of a company) to fail and stop trading
Informal, from dead fish floating upside down. Also written 'belly-up'. 'Go bust' is the British equivalent.
In context
The airline went belly up after just two years, leaving thousands of passengers stuck.
Half the start-ups in that programme went belly-up within a year.
More idioms about business
- a ballpark figurea rough number that is close to the real amount
- a big playera powerful and important person or company in a field
- a bottlenecka point where progress slows because too much has to pass through it
- a deal breakera fact or condition that makes you refuse to accept an agreement
- a dog-eat-dog worlda situation where people compete hard and will harm others to succeed