Come a cropper

She came a cropper on the stairs and broke her leg.

I should feel certain that I should come a cropper, but still I'd try it. As you say, a fellow should try.

You couldn't help feeling he'd be caught out one day, and then what an almighty cropper he'd come!

We are accustomed to seeing Morphy conquer brilliantly against great odds; but this time he comes a cropper.

You tried to convey too much and you conveyed nothing. You came a cropper, major.

We had been taught Latin, French and German grammar; but English grammar was something we felt we were expected to infer from our reading – which is doubtless why I came a cropper over “its” and “it’s”.

Although they were meant to reach the Moon no matter what, cryptocurrencies are also coming a cropper.

“No, Cynthia is a protégée of my mother’s, the daughter of an old schoolfellow of hers, who married a rascally solicitor. He came a cropper, and the girl was left an orphan and penniless. My mother came to the rescue, and Cynthia has been with us nearly two years now.”