go the way of the dodo bird

English

Etymology

See go the way of the dodo.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡəʊ ðə ˌweɪ ə(v) ðə ˈdəʊdəʊ bɜːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡoʊ ðə ˌweɪ ə(v) ðə ˈdoʊˌdoʊ bɝd/
• Hyphenation: go the way of the do‧do bird

Verb

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

1. (idiomatic) Synonym of go the way of the dodo
   • 1995, Sylvia Lovegren, “The Twenties: Icebox Cookery and Other Modern Ideas”, in Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 2:

     [A]s many middle-class women entered the workforce, the live-in servant went the way of the dodo bird, and the maids, servants, and hired girls who had helped with the back-breaking housework preferred jobs in offices.

   • 1995, Joachim Schurmann, “Do-it-yourself Software”, in Jessica Keyes, editor, Technology Trendlines: Technology Success Stories from Today’s Visionaries, New York, N.Y.: Van Nostrand Reinhold, Wiley, →ISBN, page 119:

     Soon the typewriter would become a back-office curiosity, and the slide-rule would go the way of the Dodo bird.

   • 2004, Erik Sherman, “Cache On”, in Geocaching: Hide and Seek with Your GPS (A Technology in Action Press Book), Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, →DOI, →ISBN, page 24:

     Without sending the verification, your credit for the find goes the way of the dodo bird.

   • 2006, Jeff Chang, “Introduction: Hip-hop Arts: Our Expanding Universe”, in Jeff Chang, editor, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-hop, New York, N.Y.: BasicCivitas, →ISBN, note 1, page xv:

     She [Thelma Golden] wanted to emphasize that postmulticulturalist African American artists had both benefited from and wanted to move on from that narrow focus on racial content over formal quality. She certainly didn't mean to suggest that racism had gone the way of the dodo bird or that race was no longer a concern of these artists—in fact, quite the opposite.

   • 2011, C. J. Maloney, “The Angel of Arthurdale Arrives”, in Back to the Land: Arthurdale, FDR’s New Deal, and the Costs of Economic Planning, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 67:

     The reason that so many were fleeing the land was simply that small family farms were going the way of the dodo bird.

   • 2011, Brandon Webb, Glen Doherty, “The History of Snipers”, in The 21st-century Sniper: A Complete Practical Guide, New York, N.Y.: Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN, page 47, column 1:

     In the new Atomic Age, little thought was given (again) to the relevancy of the lone shooter, and the allies continued to thumb their noses at history and allowed their sniper programs to go the way of the dodo bird. Not so much the Communists.

   • 2011 October 11, Robert Kirkman, Jay Bonansinga, The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 100:

     During Reconstruction, after [William Tecumseh] Sherman had torched the place, the planners decided to let the old historic landmarks go the way of the dodo bird; and over the next century and a half Atlanta got tarted up in steel and glass.