Crossword Genius

What an underachiever might do to fail? (4,2,7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

come to nothing

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fail?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'what an underachiever might do to' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'an' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one) and 'i' is present in the answer.
'do' could be 'come' (synonyms) and 'come' is found in the answer.
'to' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for come to nothing that I've seen before include "Turn out a failure" , "Fail" , "Result in failure" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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