go south and head south
Theme: ESCAPE
in. to make an escape; to disappear.Lefty went south the minute he got out of the pen.The mugger headed south just after the crime.
Theme: FALL
in. to fall; to go down.All the stock market indexes went south today.The market headed south today at the opening bell.
Theme: QUIT
in. to quit; to drop out of sight.Fred got discouraged and went south. I think he gave up football permanently.After pulling the bank job, Max went south for a few months.
Idiom
go south
American, informal to lose value or quality.When oil prices went south, it caused problems right across the economy.She played well in the tennis championships, except her serve seemed to have gone south.