Screw the Pooch:
To mess up, bungle (work). To fail in a dramatic and shameful or dishonest way.
Screw [skru:]:
Am. sl. To have sexual intercourse with.
sl. To mess up, bungle (work).
Pooch [pu:tʃ] – sl. dog.
Examples:
Man, I really screwed the pooch when I talked to my boss while I was drunk last night.
That computer's a lemon, I really screwed the pooch on that deal!
Damn, I really screwed the pooch on that one.
Origin:
The term originates from the early days of the American space program. It was created by a Yale graduate – John Rawlings, who helped in constructing the space suits for astronauts. The phrase is a softened version of another, far more vulgar one – 'you are fucking the dog!'. At Yale, Rawlings' friend – radio DJ Jack May (a.k.a. 'Candied Yam Jackson') changed the expression to the more acceptable screw the pooch.
However, the term did not enter the popular vocabulary before Tom Wolfe used it in his book 'The Right Stuff', which is about the program. He used the expression to describe an error by astronaut Gus Grissom.
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