to ground

to ground

1. Into the ground. The oil leak from the storage unit was worse than the company thought, with nearly 50% going to ground. The fox went to ground to escape the pack of dogs.
2. Onto the ground or floor. The soccer player fell to ground in dramatic fashion after the defender from the other team brushed off him. The man went to ground on stage, with many worried that he had suffered a stroke or heart attack.
3. In hiding; hidden at a secret location. The convict managed to escape custody while being transferred and immediately went to ground, with police officers still searching. I feel like I need to go to ground after losing such a huge client for our firm.
See also: ground
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

to ground

1. Into a den or burrow: a fox going to ground.
2. Into hiding.
See also: ground
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • in the ground
  • hit the ground running
  • hit the ground running, to
  • shift (one's) ground
  • shift ground
  • shift your ground
  • hit the ground
  • raze
  • raze (something) to the ground
  • raze to the ground
References in periodicals archive
I will go to my grave grateful we hung together." The president then discussed the war's tactics, first referring to the air campaign and then to ground troops: "There was a gross underestimation of the damage we have done [in the air campaign] to the Serb army--and we kept all options open."
Clinton's war: what Kosovo can teach us now
As seen in Figure 1, one tool is connected to ground by a short, wide, braided wire, the other via a long, coiled, thin-gauge wire.
How good is your ground? Making sure all the equipment in your facility is connected to a good EMI ground means less production downtime and fewer troubleshooting problems. (Dealing with EMC)
This brings us to one of the most common uses of grounds: providing a "true" zero voltage for current coming from extraneous sources, to allow the current to flow to ground to complete the circuit.
Control update: making grounds work for you. (News From Hench)
Ground "C" at the PC workstation is a readily apparent connection to ground due to the use of three-wire power cords.
IEEE 1394 Bus Galvanic Isolation Issues
This wire cage serves to ground the bath if metal penetrates through the crucible.
Guidelines for proper coreless furnace maintenance
Realizing that individuals and professionals might begin resorting to such questionable practices, EPRI convened a workshop at Michigan State University in East Lansing last November to begin discussing what might be done to safely and legally reduce magnetic fields attributable to ground currents.
EMFs run aground: mapping magnetic fields from water pipes and other homely sources