Word.ws English Dictionary

go down the wrong way

go down the wrong way verb: to go down the trachea (windpipe) in one's throat instead of the esophagus (the tube in the throat for swallowed food and fluids), typically resulting in coughing or choking.

Verb

go down the wrong way (third-person singular simple present goes down the wrong way, present participle going down the wrong way, simple past went down the wrong way, past participle gone down the wrong way)

  1. (idiomatic) To go down the trachea (windpipe) in one's throat instead of the esophagus (the tube in the throat for swallowed food and fluids), typically resulting in coughing or choking.
    • She took a big drink of milk and it went down the wrong way. She was coughing for the next two minutes.

Synonyms of go down the wrong way

Forms of go down the wrong way

third-person singular presentgoes down the wrong way
present participlegoing down the wrong way
pastwent down the wrong way
past participlegone down the wrong way

Questions about go down the wrong way

What does go down the wrong way mean?
Go down the wrong way means to go down the trachea (windpipe) in one's throat instead of the esophagus (the tube in the throat for swallowed food and fluids), typically resulting in coughing or choking.
What part of speech is go down the wrong way?
Go down the wrong way is a verb.
What is the past tense of go down the wrong way?
The past tense of go down the wrong way is went down the wrong way.

Words near go down the wrong way in the dictionary

  1. go down the toilet
  2. go down the tube
  3. go down the tubes
  4. go down the wrong pipe
  5. go down the wrong throat
  6. go down the wrong way
  7. go down with
  8. go downhill
  9. go downtown
  10. go Dutch
  11. go easy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go down the wrong way (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-go down the wrong way.ogg.

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