Go bad means to become rotten, sour or unsafe to eat. It is used about food that you can no longer eat: The milk has gone bad. In informal British English, people often say go off with the same meaning: This yoghurt has gone off.
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milk/meat/fruit + go bad; has gone bad; go off (BrE, informal)
- Put the fish in the fridge, or it will go bad in this heat.
- Half the vegetables we bought at the market went bad before we had time to cook them.
- On a camping trip, take food that won't go bad without a fridge.
What changed
First versionWe didn't eat the strawberries in time, and they became bad.
RevisionWe didn't eat the strawberries in time, and they went bad.
Became bad looks logical, but for food that spoils English uses the verb go: go bad, go off, go mouldy, go stale. A native speaker wouldn't say that strawberries became bad. Became was changed to went.
Go bad is for food. When plans or arrangements fail, use go wrong: Something went wrong with our booking. To say that something made an evening or a mood unpleasant, use ruin or spoil: The rain ruined our picnic.
Your turn
We left the milk on the kitchen table all weekend, and by Monday it had ___.
Show the answer
gone bad — The milk stood outside the fridge all weekend and was no longer safe to drink, so it had gone bad. Go wrong is used about plans, machines and situations that don't work out, not about food.
Think of a time when food went bad at home or on a trip. Say what exactly went bad and why.
The cheese we took on our hiking trip went bad after two days because the weather was so hot.
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