go Pete Tong

English

Etymology

Named after disc jockey Pete Tong, coined by Paul Oakenfold in late 1987.

Verb

go Pete Tong (third-person singular simple present goes Pete Tong, present participle going Pete Tong, simple past went Pete Tong, past participle gone Pete Tong)

1. (Cockney rhyming slang) To go wrong.
   • 2007, Robbie Fithon, Rainy City Players, page 95:

     But when Bobby got busted, it all went Pete Tong for him.

   • 2008, Dan Mills, Sniper One: On Scope and Under Siege with a Sniper Team in Iraq:

     It didn't take a brain surgeon to realize that things were obviously in danger of going Pete Tong. It was time to back off.

   • 2010, Geraint Anderson, Cityboy Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile:

     Things started going Pete Tong as the superficially attractive two- or three-year fixed mortgage deals ran out, interest rates went up and the housing bubble inevitably burst.

   • 2024 October 30, Paul Bigland, “The heat is on... and will the railway fray?”, in RAIL, number 1021, page 46:

     On leaving the train at Piccadilly, everything goes 'Pete Tong'. Services are in complete disarray, as a tree has come down onto the line at Gatley.

See also

• It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004 film)