handcart

go to hell in a handbasket

To be in an extremely and increasingly bad or ruinous condition; to be on the inevitable path to utter failure or ruin. With the way he's running things, the company is going to hell in a handbasket! After our funding was cut, our project went to hell in a handbasket.
See also: go, handbasket, hell

go to hell in a handcart

To be in an extremely and increasingly bad or ruinous condition; to be on the inevitable path to utter failure or ruin. With this new president in office, our country is going to go to hell in a handcart! After our funding was cut, our project went to hell in a handcart.
See also: go, handcart, hell
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

go to hell in a handbasket

undergo a rapid process of deterioration. North American informal
This expression has been recorded since the early 20th century; variants of it include go to hell in a handcart and go to hell in a basket .
1990 Nature Conservancy I read widely on environmental issues and often feel that ‘the world is going to hell in a handbasket’.
See also: go, handbasket, hell
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

go to hell in a handbasket

Heading for trouble. The expression might possibly have been inspired by the heads of decapitated prisoners falling or being dumped into handbaskets or handcarts. The “handbasket” alliteration following “going to hell” caught on and was applied to anyone whose behavior was likely to lead to an unhappy consequence.
See also: go, handbasket, hell
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • go to hell in a bucket
  • go to hell in a handbasket
  • go to hell in a handbasket, to
  • be going to hell
  • handbasket
  • go to hell in a handcart
  • go to the devil
  • Go to the devil!
  • lead balloon, go over like a
  • go down like a lead balloon
References in periodicals archive
They began using handcarts, thus initiating a five-year experiment that has become a legend in the annals of Mormon and North American migration.
The Mormon Handcart Migration
By 1860, five additional handcart companies had made the trip, with major changes made as a result of the painful lessons learned from the Sweetwater event, significant in Mormon history.
Sweetwater Rescue: The Willie and Martin Handcart Story
The handcart groups started their journey in Iowa City - the western reach of the railroad in 1856, and walked 1,300 miles to Utah, where the rapidly growing Mormon church had established several settlements.
Teens follow footsteps of pioneers
A vulnerable population pushing their belongings 1,300 miles across a wilderness utterly foreign to them: the handcart pioneers depended enormously on luck.
The cost of salvation
He used to park his handcart on a service road in Sector G-9, where a number of government offices are located.
Capital lives: Content with blessings
The more than 50 operators picked the driver at his place of work and tried to take him to the Narok County Referral Hospital using a handcart but police intervened.
Man forced to go for circumcision in Narok
Sources told The Frontier Post that the explosives were planted on a handcart which were remotely detonated at the main crossing gate of the Torkham border in Khyber tribal region.
Blast near Torkham gate leaves one dead
Shafique Nang claimed the Taliban had given the children a handcart to take it to Ghazni City.
9 dead as insurgents storm ALP posts in Takhar
WHEN these showmen go on the road they do it literally - pushing everything they need in a handcart.
On the road with a cart full of stories
Families behind with their rent and under threat of eviction would disappear in the depths of night, their possessions on a handcart or in the back of a van.
Whitby's moonlight flit; views
I wonder if any of your good readers out there would be willing to lend me a handcart for a few days?
Inshort
The poor can start life without Sure Start, Schools shouldn't give out free meals, We can all go to hell in a handcart, If we hadn't just sold off the wheels!
Poets' corner
In short, we're going to financial hell in a handcart that could be repossessed at any moment.
Homing in on Tony
Cold weather, the sparkle of Christmas having faded, credit card bills, winter flu and New Year's resolutions that have gone to hell in a handcart all make January the 19th the most depressing day of the year, say experts.
Braving those Monday blues
Education Secretary Alan Johnson said: "I don't accept the views of those who seek to portray our nation and its children as well on its way to hell in a handcart."
Anger at Blair plan for exam