present participle of screw the pooch

(Internet, slang) Of something which completes a process in an unsuccessful manner; carrying significant drawbacks, or lacking significant benefits, to the point that the object is inferior to its competition.

(Canada, chiefly politics, idiomatic) An occasion when a momentous career decision is made, especially a decision to resign or retire.

(Internet slang) Something undesirable; an exclamation suggesting an unwanted result or condition.

(quite rare) Alternative form of cut the mustard

(literature) The theory or the philosophy of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism

(idiomatic) To maintain an intermediate position between contrasting choices, opinions, etc.

(euphemistic) To die; to follow a course leading to death or extinction.

To the level of living tissue. / Very deeply; at one's most sensitive level of feeling.

(transitive, figuratively) To hurt a person deeply, especially emotionally. / (figuratively) To discuss the underlying sensitive or unpleasant root of a given topic.