take it south

English translation: do their worst, do whatever they had to

13:04 Jun 16, 2017

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Slang

English term or phrase: take it south

A worker got his hand stuck in a coupler and later had three and a half fingers amputated. He describes it like so:

You can try to pull your hand out of there but you know there is no way it is going to get out. That's why I just told them to ****take it south****. I remember I went to the emergency response team, I didn't want to look at it, I just had my right hand holding it down over there and once I got in the ambulance my mind just blanked out.

What does he mean by "take it south"? Thanks!

Mikhail Kropotov KudoZ activity Questions: 408 (none open) Answers: 5215 Germany
Local time: 20:19

Selected answer:do their worst, do whatever they had to

Explanation:
I think this is a better paraphrase of "take it south" if you're translating it into another language. If you're in this situation, you don't tell the medics to cut your hand off or go for the worst-case scenario: you say do whatever it takes, I don't care how bad it is.

"Do your worst" means not "do a bad job" but "do whatever is necessary".

Selected response from:

philgoddard
United States

Grading comment

Thanks everyone for your help
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +5

do their worst, do whatever they had to

philgoddard

3 +2

cut it off

Julius Ngwa

go for the worst case scenario

airmailrpl

Answers

6 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

cut it off

Explanation:
Context

Julius Ngwa
Canada
Local time: 14:19
Native speaker of:

English

45 mins confidence:

go for the worst case scenario

Explanation:
take it south -> go for the worst case scenario

The use of south as in the phrase go south stems from the 1920s (from the Oxford English Dictionary): colloq. (orig. Stock Market). Downward or lower in value, price, or quality; in or into a worse condition or position.Sep 19, 2011
etymology - Origin of the idiom "go south" - English Language ...
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/42358/origin-of-...

go south - Wiktionary
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/go_south
go south (third-person singular simple present goes south, present participle ... (idiomatic) To become unfavorable; to decrease; to take a turn for the worse.

airmailrpl
Brazil
Local time: 15:19
Native speaker of:

English,

Portuguese
PRO pts in category: 32

5 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

do their worst, do whatever they had to

philgoddard
United States
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8

Grading comment

Thanks everyone for your help

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take it south

English translation: do their worst, do whatever they had to

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take it south

English translation: do their worst, do whatever they had to

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