to hell in a handbasket

Definitions

To go to a bad state of affairs quickly.

idiomatic, informal

Equivalents

Examples

“I watched as the guy in charge did nothing and the whole place⟳ went to hell in a handbasket.”

“Ralph's close⟳ vision had deteriorated quite a bit since Carolyn’s death—gone to hell in a handbasket might actually have⟳ been a more accurate way of putting it—and he had to lean⟳ forward⟳ until his brow was pressed against the dirty show⟳ window of Secondhand Rose, Secondhand Clothes before he could decipher it: […]”

“Gen Xers were said to be lazy—“slackers” in the parlance of the time—who didn’t exhibit the straightforward work⟳ ethic of their predecessors. […] Commentators wrung their hands about the slackers in our midst, further evidence that society was going to hell in a handbasket.”

CEFR level