go the way of

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

1. (idiomatic) To end up the same way as; to undergo the same fate as.

   Vinyl records seem to have gone the way of the dinosaurs [i.e. become extinct, or fallen out of common use].

   • 2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     We now need to make coal-­ and gas-­fired power plants go the way of whale oil. And if you want to change the world, it helps first to have an alternative. People invented railways to replace horse-­drawn carriages, electricity to supplant steam engines, rock oil for whale oil, and the market –­ Adam Smith’s great invisible hand –­ ensured they took hold.

• go the way of the dinosaurs
• go the way of the dodo