going to seed

Verb

go to seed (third-person singular simple present goes to seed, present participle going to seed, simple past went to seed, past participle gone to seed)

1. To pass from flowering or ripening to the formation of seeds.
   • Wild tomatoes, which had gone to seed or been remorselessly hoed out from the beginning of Berande, were foraged for salads, soups, and sauces.1911, Jack London, Adventure
2. (broadly, figuratively) To deteriorate; to decline into an unkempt or debased condition.
   • But the "frump" will let herself and all her surroundings go to seed, not from humbleness of mind or an overwhelming sense of her own unworthiness, but in pure complacent conceit.1898, Eliot Gregory, Worldly Ways and Byways