This is YAPOQ*: What is the origin of “pear-shaped” as used to denote something having gone disastrously wrong? It is easy enough to understand certain other phrases – i.e., “the wheels fell off” – but pear-shaped?
urbandictionary.com has this explanation: . . . based on the visualisation of a plan being like a perfect circle. When something goes wrong, the plan is distorted and becomes pear-shaped.
To me, this explanation is unsatisfying. Any other elucidators out there?
RR
I have never heard it used the way the OP describes. I’ve only heard “pear-shaped” to describe a person’s body shape, in which case the origin is very apparent. Some people are shaped like pears.
If it is used the way the OP describes, I would guess that it originally comes from calling people pear-shaped and then broadening the term to include your definition.
I’ve always associated “pear-shaped” as a UK colloquialism, and not so prevalent here in the states (at least in the south). Not much help, but maybe a UK doper has more insight on this phrase
Or more accurately: throwing glass and blowing Clay?
Never heard the term either except for endomorphs as noted above. How would you use it in a sentence? Would it be “…subsequent to the pear-shaped administration of Abu-Ghraib prison?”
A typical (UK) use of the expression would be: “it’s all gone pear-shaped” meaning it has all gone wrong. I can’t think of a way to use the expression in a significantly different way that sounds colloquially “correct”. The prison example you give does not work, to my ear at least.