go down the drain

Meaning

This idiom means to be completely wasted, lost, or spoiled. In a business context, it is used casually to express frustration when investments, hard work, time, or opportunities produce absolutely no results.

Examples

• If this deal falls through, months of hard work will go down the drain.

  If this deal falls through, months of hard work will go down the drain.

• I hate to see all that advertising money go down the drain.

  I hate to see all that advertising money go down the drain.

• Because of the power outage, all our progress went down the drain.

  Because of the power outage, all our progress went down the drain.

• We can't let this great opportunity go down the drain.

  We can't let this great opportunity go down the drain.

• If the company goes bankrupt, our investments will go down the drain.

  If the company goes bankrupt, our investments will go down the drain.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ All my efforts went down to the drain.

  ✓ All my efforts went down the drain.

  The idiom is 'go down the drain' without the preposition 'to'.

• ✗ We shouldn't let our budget go down the pipe.

  ✓ We shouldn't let our budget go down the drain.

  The correct word is 'drain,' not 'pipe' or 'sink,' even though they are related to plumbing.

Related Expressions

Practice

• If we don't back up our data, hours of coding could ___.

  💡 be completely wasted or lost

  Show answer

  go down the drain

• All our preparation will ___ if the client cancels the meeting.

  💡 yield no results

  Show answer

  go down the drain