Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) to lose one’s temper, to behave irritably; to make a fuss, to let off steam.

1870		Aus. Town and Country Journal (Sydney) 12 Nov. 13/4: He slackens the rein, and saying, ‘Go to market now old fellow’, sits the wild plunge of the colt like a Mexican vaquero [AND].
1887		W. Tyrwhitt New Chum in the Queensland Bush 61: ‘I say, are you going to ride Customer?’ ‘Yes. I expect he’ll go to market, won’t he?’ (Euphemism for buck jumping).
1898		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. Red Page: To get narked is to lose your temper; also expressed by getting dead wet or going to market.
1908		W.H. Ogilvie My Life in Open 83: Playful or vicious, according to their breeding and temperament, almost all of them [...] ‘go to market’ in some form or other .
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee July 4/2: Later on, in the mess, a brother officer was ‘going to market’ because he had been rebuked for his failure to name men whose names the General sought.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 149: My, he’s goin’ to market all right!
1948		R. Raven-Hart Canoe in Aus. 76: Melbourne and Adelaide get what they call ‘dust-storms’, and ‘go to market about it’, grousing to high heaven.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 147: There was Joyce going to market on Peggy, boots and all.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 233/2: go to market – complain, become angry.

1. (US black) in prison.

1939

Jelly Roll Morton ‘Buddy Bolden’s Blues’ 🎵 I thought I heard Judge Fogarty say, / ‘Thirty days in the market, take him away.’.

2. rich, well-off, usu. as the result of gambling or crime.

1941

V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 255: In the market. In the money.