Screw the pooch

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Meaning

Make a serious, conspicuous, or disastrous mistake. Current but crude even in euphemised form Regional use: United States military, later general slang.

Origin

A euphemised form of a coarser American military expression. The older wording meant to loaf or shirk in World War I service slang and had developed a blunder sense by the mid-20th century. Screw the pooch is in print by 1978 and became widely known through Tom Wolfe's 1979 The Right Stuff. Wolfe and the U.S. space programme popularised it; neither originated the underlying expression.

Variants

  • screwed the pooch
  • screwing the pooch

Usage Examples

  • We screwed the pooch by sending the invitations with the wrong date.
  • One unchecked valve can screw the pooch for the entire launch sequence.

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