From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcome to griefcome to griefFAILto fail, or to be harmed or destroyed in an accident candidates who come to grief in exams → grief
Examples from the Corpus
come to grief• But out of sight at the other end of the course, Mr Hill had also come to grief.• She'd come to grief acting like that, but not from him.• This is often far from the case and many a combination has come to grief at the very last fence.• Far from remaining a hero, he came to grief.• The reductivist enterprise thus inevitably comes to grief, and it is not altogether surprising that it does.• When it comes to that interesting pastime, most members of most species come to grief.• Then might not the rotting stump of the tree split under their weight and they come to grief? 