go v.
1. in the context of sexuality.
(a) to have an orgasm.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Antony and Cleopatra I ii: O! let him marry a woman that cannot go, sweet Isis. | |
| ‘The Riddle’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy II 71: What thing it is will breed Delight, / That strives to stand, yet cannot go, / That feeds the Mouth that cannot bite. | |
| Man-Midwife Unmasqu’d 4: O, Doctor! said She, fie, what is it you’re doing? / I prithee give over, for now – now – I’m going. | |
| Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 83: Finding myself on the point of going, and loath to leave the tender partner of my joys behind, I employ’d all the forwarding motions and arts [...] to promote his keeping me company to our journey’s end. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 298: But helen ne’er shall quit my hand, / So long as I can go or stand. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Kings X Hooker 13: ‘Come on ... you two have been missing for some time ... Was she real good boy? ... Did she make you go?’. |
(b) usu. of a woman, to perform sexual intercourse; usu. in interrog. phr. used between two men, Does she go?
| [ | | Comedye Concernyng Three Lawes (1550) Act II: [in homosexual use] With Man haue I bene, whych hath me thus defyled, With Idolatrye, and uncleane Sodomye]. |
| ‘Cuckolds Haven’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 42: So long as they can goe or ride, / They’l have their husbands hornify’d. | |
| ‘The Hopeful Bargain’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 208: He for a Shilling sold his Spouse, / And she was very willing to go. | |
| ‘Kate Randy’ Secret Songster 6: She’s got but von eye, and her mouth’s all awry. / But a rum ’un to go is Kate Randy. | |
| ‘Master Humphrey’s Clock’ Rambler’s Flash Songster 7: But with women like clocks, you ought always to stand – [...] It is not their painting, but how they can go. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 15 Feb. 11/2: Never mind, Sally [...] they say you go six nights a week. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Battle Cry (1964) 396: Do the broads go or don’t they? | |
| Owning Up (1974) 108: She’s got a fair pair of bristols and muscles like an Irish bluddy navvy. By gum she can go and all. | |
| Erections, Ejaculations etc. 166: You sure can go, but you look real beat-up. [Ibid.] 166: I don’t think I want to go again. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Glue 32: What dae ye want tae stey oan at school fir when yuv already rode jist aboot every bird thair that’ll go? |
2. to succeed, to win approval or applause; thus goingest adj., best.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: It wont Gee, it won’t Hit, or go. | |
| Bristol Magpie 14 Dec. 28/1: The performances ‘went’ immensely. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 8/1: Twas perfectly apparent that in order to compete / With entertainment offered every day to the elite, / this Mission must provide a pretty giddy sort of show, / And so put on the Gospel as to make it fairly ‘go’. | |
| Mirror of Life 6 Jan. 4: [pic. caption] On His Muscle. / The Thick Ear Racket Don’t Go. | |
| Artie (1963) 10: I’ll try it, an’ if it do n’t go, it’s a baby risk. | |
| Fact’ry ’Ands 213: Yer thinkin’ iv doin’ er mag erbout sheddin’ yer beans in ther scared cause iv charity, but it don’t go. | |
| Door of Dread 84: Hand it to the corn-rustlers who ain’t hep to a crook from the gyp-game days! For it don’t go wit’ me! I know who yuh are. | |
| (con. 1910s) Elmer Gantry 260: The Reverend Elmer Gantry had failed as an independent evangelist [...] there was something wrong. He could not make it go. | |
| World I Never Made 185: Pulling kike stuff, you know, Jack, that doesn’t go. | |
| Cry Tough! 151: What about the longer hem line, you think it’ll go? | |
| Cop This Lot 183: How would a bloke go? | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 482: She looks just like an old one-eyed mammy, don’t she? Well, that woman once ran the goingest house in Galveston. | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 72: Sometimes it goes, sometimes it’s a fuck-up. |
3. in the context of monetary investment.
(a) to bet, to wager; thus gone, having lost a bet.
| Good Natur’d Man Act III: Men that would go forty guineas on a game of cribbage. | |
| Lame Lover in Works (1799) II 61: Sir Luke: I’ll hop with any man in town for his sum. Serjeant: Aym, and I’ll go his halves. | |
| Boston Transcript 16 Dec. 2/2: Well, said the ‘Cotton man,’ what will you go now? ‘Go,’ said the farmer, [...] ‘I’ll go the whole hog’ [DA]. | |
| N.Y. Clipper 4 June 2/5: Bet High on That. On the return trip of the British steamer Arabia, and the Collins steamer, there will be some ‘tall walking done.’ We’ll go our pile on Collins. | |
| Joaquin 130: I’ll go as X besides that the old buck himself, Joaquin, is in town, for one is always hanging around the other. | |
| Wilds of London (1881) 272: I’ll go you a half-dollar level if you’re a-mind. | |
| Forty Years a Gambler 158: ‘Will you bet a drink that I can’t guess it the first time?’ [...] ‘I’ll go you a dram.’. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Jan. 2/3: ‘I believe you are, bluffing’" he whispered, hoarsely, ‘but just now I cannot afford to go you’. | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] Chance Your Luck 🎵 Down at Kempton on the course, trying hard to spot a horse / [...] / Then you wonder whether you shall chance a bob or two / Take my tip and go the lot. | |
| Houndsditch Day by Day 90: ‘I’ll go yer!’ he yells, ‘but who’s to ’old de shtakes?’. | |
| Bar-20 iii: ‘Bet yu ten we don’t git ’em afore dark,’ he announced. ‘Got yu. Go yu ten more I gits another,’ promptly responded Buck. | |
| ‘War’ Moods of Ginger Mick 23: I’m gone a tenner at the two-up school; / The game is crook, an’ Rose is turnin’ cool. | |
| Holy Smoke 8: Er – what did you go on the big fight at the Stadium last night? |
(b) to bet on; also in fig. use, to trust.
| Calif. Police Gazette 6 Mar. 2/3: Our informants are judges, and we go a heap on their opinion. | |
| Americanisms 216: One said to the other, ‘Hal, whom will you bet on?’ The reply was, ‘I’ll bet on this little monkey-faced fellow.’ ‘All right,’ says the first, ‘I’ll go this cock-eyed old buster in the red wig.’. |
(c) to pay for.
| ‘Mr Ward Attends a Graffick’ in Complete Works (1922) 164: Don’t care if I duz [...] perwided u go the Ticket. | |
| Life on the Mississippi (1914) 390: A person won’t take in pine if he can go walnut; and won’t take in walnut if he can go mahogany; and won’t take in mahogany if he can go an iron casket with silver door-plate and bronze handles. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 14/4: Well, throw in a little red pepper. It will make a weak drink for me, but I’ll have to go you. | |
| Put on the Spot 8: I’m goin’ to the station an’ spring Polack Annie. We owe her that. I’ll go her bond. | |
| Miss Pym Disposes (1957) 104: ‘[Y]ou didn’t even go a sixpenny bus-ride into Larborough to see him play tonight’ . | |
| ‘Jimmie Tucker’ in Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 68: Sheriff come a running, and he picked on me. / Locked me up in his lousy old jail. / Boss said he’d be damned if he went my bail. | |
| Pimp 64: She went his train fair. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 273: A long story of how Leah’s sister [...] refused to go his [bail] bond. |
4. to tolerate, to bear, to put up with.
 | Illinois Monthly Nov. 74: I can’t go it, sir! [DA]. | |
| Clockmaker I 23: Yes, I love the Quakers, I hope they’ll go the Webster ticket yet. | |
| Pitching in a Pinch 214: I cannot ‘go’ young ball-players who attempt to become the bootblacks for the old ones . | |
| (con. 1917–18) Through the Wheat 124: Smells like some’p’n you’ve stepped in. Mah guts can’t go that stuff. | |
| Longmont Times-Call 15 June 1/1: I can drink milk, coffee and pop, but I can’t go tea [DA]. | |
| I’m a Jack, All Right 43: I could go a cup of coffee. |
5. in the context of physical collapse.
(a) (US) to be killed; to die.
| Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 31: The child is much worse to-night, and I think he’ll go before daybreak. | |
| Forty Years a Gambler 19: I made up my mind that if I had to go I might as well go then as at any other time. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Aug. 32/4: Look ’ere, Andy, I ain’t ’ad no easy life. The old woman pegged when I was 12. [...] When the old woman went they kicked me out – sold the few sticks an’ cleared. | |
| Look Homeward, Angel (1930) 182: ‘You’re drowning in your own secretions [...] Like old Lady Sladen.’ ‘My God!’ said Harry Tugman [...] ‘When did she go?’ ‘Tonight,’ said Coker. | |
| Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 5: ‘He’s going.’ The heavy-set man did not shift his eyes from the face of the man on the packing cases. | |
| America’s Homosexual Underground 135: Your mother’s not ready to go just yet. | |
| Cogan’s Trade (1975) 179: I hate to see you go like this [...] going for fuckin’ nothin’. | |
| Muscle for the Wing 186: The bottom line is, all these punks have got to go. | |
| Shame the Devil 60: She went six months later, heavily doped on morphine, at home in their marriage bed. |
(b) (US prison) to be executed.
| ‘His Last Day’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 298: Sure, he was going tonight. What the hell did he care? [...] ‘I guess you think that because a man is going to die he should be crying and praying, eh, brother,’ Spats sneered . | |
| et al. DAUL 83/1: Go. [...] 2. To die; to escape. ‘They got the chair (electric chair) all set for those two dudes (fellows) who go tonight.’. | |
| In For Life 142: On one occasion he came within nine days of ‘going’. |
(c) (US) to be arrested; to go to prison.
| Bunch of Ratbags 185: He’s been caught bustin’ open gas-meters; he’ll go this time. | |
| Serpico 167: Hassel [a policy gambling collector] was spotted in a tenement doorway. [Officer] Zumatto bolted out of the car and pushed him into the hall, and came up with a handful of policy slips. ‘Now, you fuck, you’re going’. | |
| (con. mid-1960s) Crusader 65: As he continued writing summonses, the doorman opened the door of one of the cars [...] ‘If you move that car, you’d better have the license and the registration, or you’re going,’ David warned him. | |
| At End of Day (2001) 94: If it was the Staties got him [...] you and me’d be going too. | |
| We Own This City 19: ‘Lock up every swinging dick,’ ‘No free passes, everybody goes’ . |
(d) to collapse, to fall down.
| Rope Burns 132: The African hit Mookie with a dozen of his best shots, but Mookie wouldn’t go. | |
| Last Kind Words 128: He’d be rough to take under these bright lights, but in a parking lot at night he’d go pretty easy. |
6. to deal with, to find appealing or acceptable, to like or prefer.
| ‘Little Breeches’ Pike County Ballads 13: I don’t go much on religion [...] I don’t pan out on the prophets And free-will, and that sort of thing – But I b’lieve in God and the angels. | |
| Checkers 76: Reaching up to the hand on his shoulder, he grasped it warmly. ‘I’ll go you,’ he said. | |
| ‘A Ditty of Dislike’ Sporting Times 24 Apr. 1/2: She’d no love for them, although she’d lots of surplus love to spare, / But she simply couldn’t go them, that was all. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘Old Man’s Story’ A Man and His Wife (1944) 80: I don’t go much on putting people away. | |
| Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 146: You don’t go the women much, Sam? | |
| Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 14: I could go a snake’s. [Ibid.] 70: I could go a shag. | |
| (con. 1941) Gunner 166: Well, I don’t go ’im [...] He’s a real out-an’-outer if you ask me. | |
| Real Thing 56: There were a couple of half-pie mates of billy Dunnes [...] whom he didn’t particularly go much on. |
7. (orig. US) to be accepted or carried into effect, to have authority or effectiveness, to be obeyed without question; esp. in phr. what I say goes.
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 19 June 14/2: Chris Von der Ahe Is kicking against the fining of his players by umpires, Chris says they ‘will not go’. | |
| Chimmie Fadden 1: I seed a lady I know crossing de Bow’ry. See? Say, she’s a torrowbred, and dat goes. | |
| Maison De Shine 62: I want a suite of rooms on the first floor, and that goes! | |
| Psmith Journalist (1993) 201: Do you mean to say [...] that this fellow Windsor’s the boss here, that what he says goes? | |
| Lipstick 277: I told you I didn’t want to dance in this mob, and that goes [DA]. | |
| Sudden Takes the Trail 13: ‘That goes, Reddy,’ they chorused. |
8. to eat or drink, e.g. I could go a couple of beers.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 14/1: Two loafers sat within that bar, their tongues were hanging out – / Impatiently they waited for that bushie man to shout; / They watched each beer fast disappear and muttered with a sigh: / ‘We might a known he’d go alone, this man from Mungindi.’. | |
| ‘A Piece of Steak’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1631: ‘Blimey, but couldn’t I go a piece of steak!’ he muttered aloud. | |
| Other Half 78: I could sure go a cup of coffee right now. | |
| I Can Get It For You Wholesale 24: I only like them the way my mother makes them [...] Boy, could I go a plate of them now! | |
| None But the Lonely Heart 94: I could go a nice shrimp or two. | |
| They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 46: ‘I do not think I could drink tea after all those schooners.’ ‘Well yer don’t ’ave ter. Yer could go a feed, couldn’t yer?’. | |
| Gone Fishin’ 19: Could you go a beer? | |
| Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 12: Could you go a lager and lime or something? | |
| Lockie Leonard: Scumbuster (1995) 71: ‘I could really go a cuppa,’ said Lockie. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Fjord of Killary’ in New Yorker 24 Jan. 🌐 ‘Would you go again, John?” I indicated his emptied stout glass’. |
9. to match, to equal; to get along.
| George’s Mother (2001) 100: ‘Well, ol’ man, let’s take a drink fer ol’ Handyville’s sake!’ Kelcy was deeply affected [...] ‘I’ll go yeh,’ he said. | |
| Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘When I get as old as you...’ ‘Don’t get gay. I can go you time for time’. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 101: go [...] to come to terms; to agree. |
10. for something to work out in a specific way, esp. of a political contest, e.g. go Labour, go Republican.
| Americanisms in Knowledge Dec. 28 n.p.: A State is said to go Democratic, or to go Republican, when it votes for one or the other cause after being for a time doubtful, or on the other side [OED]. | |
| Sat. Rev. (London) 22 Feb. 213/2: The constituency has alternately ‘gone’ Gladstonian and Tory . | |
| To Reach a Dream 105: ‘You know it don’t go like that. You fucked up now you pay up’. | |
| Guardian 20 Apr. 🌐 Most analysts expect the two south-east Scotland seats to go Lib Dem in this election. | |
| Seattle Times 5 Nov. 🌐 Maine, governed by an independent for eight years, is favored to go Democratic; New Hampshire, governed by a Democrat for six years, is favored to go Republican. | |
| Our Town 274: ‘Stand around and get your ass beat because you’re white — that ain’t gonna go,’ he scowled with outrage. |
11. to attack, verbally or physically.
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | ‘The Likes O’ Us’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 4 Feb. (1909) 105: ‘I think nothing [...] He didn’t go at me. He’s your property’. | |
| Arizona Nights II 223: The stranger looked him in the eye for nearly a half-minute without lowering his revolvers. ‘I go you,’ said he briefly. | |
| Smoke Bellew Pt 11 🌐 ‘You can go some,’ Saltman acknowledged [...] as he sat astride Smoke’s chest. ‘But I down you every time.’. | |
| Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 GO HIM — To want to fight [...] GOIN’ STIFF ’UNS — Thieving from inebriates. | |
| They Die with Their Boots Clean 122: ‘Can he go?’ [...] ‘Go? One smack from that right ’and and yer jaw’s just the place where yer teef used to be.’. | |
| Jim Brady 23: You can’t kick me or my dog or I’ll go you. | |
| Bunch of Ratbags 218: It was a known fact that the average man in the street couldn’t ‘go’ (fight) for more than three minutes flat out. | |
| Burn 136: When he finds out he’ll go me scone-hot. | |
| You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 115: Mrs Curtin has picked up Sally [...] and King’s [i.e. a dog] gone her. | |
| Slipper 151: You blokes go all right [...] that was a bloody good fight. | |
| (con. 1986) Sweet Forever 47: He looked kind of hard, like he could go with his hands if the situation came up. | |
| ‘Stephanie’ Destination: Morgue! (2004) 52: The man gave him a bad look. Iwasaki smelled scuffle. He prepared to go. | |
| Way Home (2009) 15: They must be private school [...] You know those bitches can’t go. | |
| ‘Doing the Job’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] ‘You want to go, homo?’. | |
| ‘Sunset’ in Broken 207: Dave standing there [...] as though he’s asking if any of them want to go. |
12. (US) to choose, esp. to become a member of; thus go something.
| Plastic Age 168: He knew that he ought to have ‘gone’ Delta Sigma Delta, that that fraternity contained a group of men whom he liked. | |
| Guardian 16 Mar. 15: Mom, can we go Catholic so we can get communion wafers and booze? |
13. to say, to talk, e.g. I go ‘How are you?’, and he goes ‘Lousy’.
| Inimitable Jeeves 38: The chambermaid continued to go strong. | |
| I Am Gazing Into My 8-Ball 34: A guy can hardly go ‘Woo, woo!’ over somebody’s bosom before a circulator of this anatomical gossip sneaks up behind you [etc]. | |
| (con. 1969) Dispatches 26: He goes to me, ‘Take a little run up to the ridge and report to me,’ and I goes like, ‘Never happen, Sir’. | |
| Campus Sl. Nov. | |
| Fixx 305: Yes, goes Dickhead, it’s a heavy burden. | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 1: ‘Vinnie my son,’ I goes. | |
| Crumple Zone 12: What you being a policeman you mean, I go, getting more sarky, leery, facety and anything else I can work up. |
14. (US) to make an effort.
| Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 55: ‘That Wise Cracker will go some if it comes to an issue’. | |
| Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 98: You have to play real hard when you play for Negroes. You have to go some, if you want to avoid their criticism. | |
| Mad mag. Sept. 21: I mean, we’re goin’ go, man! | |
| Great Aust. Gamble 82: ‘Don’t be a fool. The horse is not going’. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 74: Lookit the sausage go! |
15. to characterize, to explain, to make sense of.
| Riverslake 28: This Zigfield – what goes with the ape? |
In compounds
(US) a tramp; also attrib.
| ‘The Harvest War Song’ in et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 498: We have sent your kids to college, but still you rave and shout, / And calls us tramps and hoboes, and pesky go-abouts. | |
| Hustling Hobo 285: They move as tramps or hoboes, and are referred to by the more comfortable classes as ’boes or ‘pesky go-abouts’. | |
| Somebody in Boots 52: Git to thet woodpile now, ye tramps, ye goddamned pesky go-about bastards. |
1. (UK Und.) a fool [he ‘goes along’ when someone orders him].
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 244: go-alonger: a simple easy person, who suffers himself to be made a tool of; and is readily persuaded to any act or undertaking by his associates, who inwardly laugh at his folly, and ridicule him behind his back. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 414/2: I was a flat. He had me for a ‘go-along,’ to cry his things for him. | |
| Sl. Dict. 178: Go-along a fool, a cully, one of the most contemptuous terms in a thieves’ vocabulary. |
2. a thief.
| ‘Slang’ Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: Thieves are prigs, cracksmen, mouchers, gonophs, go-alongs. | |
| Twice Round the Clock 153: We have plenty of rogues in our body corporate yet [...] the nightside of London is fruitful in ‘macemen,’ ‘mouchers,’ and ‘go-alongs.’. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
1. a young hoodlum, a juvenile delinquent.
| ‘City Haul’ in Hair of the Dogma (1989) 69: They are night and day besieged by the ‘elected representatives’ to get jobs for their go-boys. | |
| (con. 1890s) Pictures in the Hallway 15: An’ don’t let a few goboys sthruttin’ round spoil it all be thryin’ to keep a mad an’ miserable sinner as leader of the holy Irish people. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Go-Boy! 31: You’re just as responsible for that Go-Boy as I am and don’t you forget it. | |
| Out After Dark 37: The elders of the town knew us to be what they called ‘proper go-boys’, bent on whatever sins best belonged in the dark. | |
| A Goat’s Song cap. 19: ‘Them lads are all go-boys,’ he complained, ‘they’ll have my field destroyed’ . |
2. an escapee, successful or otherwise.
| Go-Boy! 47: Although the majority of escapes were doomed to failure [...] Go-Boys still persisted, year after year, in desperate attempts to regain their lost freedom. |
3. see gofer n.
1. (US black) consequences, inevitable developments, circumstances; thus be caught in the go-’long, to be a victim of circumstances.
| ‘Sl. among Nebraska Negroes’ in AS XIII:4 Dec. 317/1: To be caught in the go ’long means to be an unfortunate victim of circumstances. | |
| (con. WWII) And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 311: These damn Japs got the old man in the go-long. |
2. (US black) the police truck in which arrested people are taken to the local cells.
| ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1006: I seen you two mullet-heads before. I was uptown when Joe Brown had you all in the go-long last night. |
see under slow adj.
In phrases
1. see also separate entries.
2. see also under relevant n. or adj.
(US black) to smoke marijuana.
| Way Home (2009) 145: Ben loved to get after it, but he only smoked occasionally. |
1. to be wary or cautious, to be experienced.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Oct. 17/1: [N]o particulars could be got from Jimmy, who knew how to ‘go alone,’ and would only repeat, ‘No play, no pay.’. |
2. (Aus.) to masturbate.
| Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] Les gave his old boy a rub. [...] No. Imagine if Digger got up and found me in here with a full hand going alone. I’d definitely be brushed from the prayer meeting. |
(US black) to pose as, to ’pass’ (i.e. as white).
| Children of Bondage 146: She is afraid to ‘pass,’ though she knows she could and would like to go as white. |
(US black) to fight.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 4: Expressions like [...] go from the shoulders (fight) [...] have been common currency among blacks for some time. [Ibid.] 104: The largest number of fight terms deals with fist-fights (to [...] cuff, to go from the fists). |
see under Y n.
(US) to attack physically.
| Manchester Spy (NH) 21 Sept. n.p.: Je-hu — an’ cod liver oil! how he went in. He gave Ned Shory one poke ’tween the eyes. | |
| N.Y. Daily Trib. 18 Sept. 5/6: [The rowdies stand] at the bar inside drinking rot gut and ready to ‘go in’ on anyone who [differs] from them politically. |
1. to take advantage of, to obtain money from.
| Bang To Rights 137: The only thing left for me to do was go into the old dear again. |
2. (Aus. teen) to attack.
| Stonewall 275: Haig had accused us of manipulating the grand jury [...] ‘Well, I went right into him then,’ Jaworski told us. | |
| (con. 1960s-70s) Top Fellas 25/1: We went into them with everything in the shop. |
see separate entry.
(US) to do one’s utmost for, to risk one’s all on, to bet to the limit.
| Sketches and Eccentricities 39: Sal jumped up, spun around, and swore she could ‘go her death’ upon a jig. |
1. see separate entry.
2. see separate entry.
see separate entry.
see also under relevant n. or adj.
see under it n.1
to excite sexually, to render infatuated.
| Alaska Citizen 28 Aug. 7/2: When Corkerina went home she had the Sleekest Thing going like a runaway freight train. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 139: The blonde had me going. |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
(orig. US black) a phr. advising someone to avoid a course of action or a particular argument etc; emphasis is on an abstract ‘there’, rather than an actual place, and the idea that for the speaker at least, ‘there’ is tabooed.
| Campus Sl. Apr. 2: don’t go there/ don’t even go there – refusal to discuss a topic or continue a conversation. | |
| Slam! 71: ‘How come you always got to have business with my man?’ Bianca said. ‘Don’t even go there, girl,’ Kicky said. ‘ [...] you know it’s not happening’. | |
| Deadmeat 311: You better back off. Don’t go there. Don’t go there. | |
| Da Bomb 🌐 9: Don’t even go there: Do not say that. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. | |
| ‘A Story in Three Parts’ in 145th Street 126: ‘You need help?’ Big Time looked up and saw the kid that Sweet Jimmy let hang around. The kid could find a vein in the dark if you needed that kind of help. ‘Ain’t going there,’ Big Time said. | |
| Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 139: ‘Do not go there, Ross. Do not even go there.’. | |
| Right As Rain 103: ‘You don’t want to go there do you?’ ‘Not really.’. | |
| Shooter 112: FB: He posted some information about you on the Net. Can you tell me about that? CE: It was personal information and I’m not going there. That’s between me and my shrink. | |
| Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 1: Christian’s looking at her, going, Do not even go there? | |
| Dope Sick 130: ‘Is there something bothering you, Jeremy?’ What was I going to say? [...] Uhn-uhn. I ain’t going there. | |
| Life 69: There was this certain ‘Don’t go there’ with rock and roll, glossy photographs and silly suits. | |
| Kick 97: [I] was about to clock Travis but stopped myself in time. I wasn’t going to go there again. | |
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall . |
to visit an outdoor privy.
| Narrative of Street-Robberies 46: He fearing he should be detected, pretended to go backwards, and left her to tell over the Money herself. | |
| Roderick Random (1979) 51: About midnight, my companion’s bowels being disordered, he got up in order to go backward. | |
| Le Dran’s Observations in Surgery 164: The Patient being pressed to go backwards went behind his tent [F&H]. |
(Anglo-Irish) to suffer judicial transportation.
| Rory the Rover n.p.: You will go beyant, and no mistake at all [DSUE]. |
(US tramp) to travel on foot (as opposed to train).
| Let Tomorrow Come 42: I go by hand all day an’ make a blind along about dark. | |
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 87: Go by Hand. – To walk; a painfully slow and laborious method of progression as compared with travel by train. | |
| et al. DAUL 83/2: Go by hand. (Hobo) To walk. |
a short person.
| , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Go by the Ground. A little short person, a man or a woman. |
| (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 127: He was a little go-by-the-ground, scarcely up to my shoulders. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Warwickshire Word-Book 94: Go-by-the-ground. A dwarf. |
a strong ale.
| Description of England 150: There is such headie ale [...] commonlie called huffe-cappe, the mad dog, father-whoresome, angels food, dragons milke, go-by-the-wall, stride-wide, and lift-leg. |
2010s US campus to put in maximum effort, lit. go hard as a motherfucker.
| UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016 5: GO HAM — go hard as a motherfucker act with intensity or extreme emotion: ‘I went ham on the dance floor when my favorite song came on’. |
(US campus/tee) to put in maximum effort.
| Urban Dict. 30 Mar. 🌐 When we saw Dason had put on his best suit and matching Tag Heuer timepiece, we knew he going hard in the paint to his job interview . | |
| UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016 5: GO HARD IN THE PAINT — do with the greatest skill, effort, and dexterity. |
see tank v.1 (1)
see under one n.1
see toe-to-toe v.
to defecate.
| Family of Love V iii: Do you go well to the ground? |
In exclamations
(orig. US black/campus) an excl. of encouragement among young women.
| Campus Sl. Apr. 6: you go girl – expression of congratulations, approval. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. 9: you go! – expression of amazement, encouragement, congratulations. | |
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 you go girl 1. phrase of encouragement, used alone. (‘You go girl!’). | |
| Indep. Rev. 8 July 4: Airey, currently C5 programming director, is tipped to be BBC1’s new controller [...] Go, girl! | |
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 16: Y.G.G. — < You go, girl! Expression of support or encouragement. | |
| Politico 16 May 🌐 We are surrounded as never before by lean-inners and you-go-girlers cheering on women. |
(UK black) an excl. of approval.
| White Talk Black Talk 129: Go deh! / there! – exclamation of encouragement. |