a goner

Idioms

Something or someone that is dead, doomed, ruined, or past recovery, as in If this new drug doesn't work, he's a goner; or Without a working transmission, my car's a goner. Synonyms of this idiom, such as, are no longer heard as much. [Slang; mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That means if it’s separated from the ants it parasitizes, it’s a goner.

From Los Angeles Times

“And I’d be a goner if you hadn’t yelled at her and made her come at you,” George said.

From Literature

“That means nothing. I passed plenty of animals who ran from this fire as I came down the lakeshore. Most of them assumed anyone left behind was a goner. Heck, that’s why I came! I’m a scavenger and there are things here to scavenge.”

From Literature

"The whole family basically thought I was a goner," he wrote.

From BBC

Then, just before 11am, as foreign office minister Stephen Doughty stood up in the Commons to answer an urgent question on Mandelson, my emails pinged - and Lord Mandelson was a goner.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023