go over, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

go over v.

1. to rob, after running one’s hands over and through the victim’s clothes.

1889		Referee 2 June n.p.: A few who had [... ] gone over the landlord, left him skinned [F&H].
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 156: Two of them had been ‘gone over’ ruinously on their way to work, and now they came and went with four policemen.
1900		Sporting Times 20 Jan. 5/4: I am going for loot, and if I kill a Boer and have a chance of going over him, you bet there won’t be much in his trow trows when I have done with him.

2. (Irish) to be transported.

1833		W. Carleton Traits and Stories of Irish Peasantry III 338: ‘I’d as soon go over,’ said Phelim; ‘or swing, itself, before I’d marry sich a piece o’ desate (A familiar term for ‘Transportation’).
[1846		Swell’s Night Guide 59: If they cops you, it’s ‘over the vater to Charley’ you dances to, cause they doesn’t dance on nothing now, them ’ere human society coves has dodged that caper nicely for sich as the likes of you, though it’s a pity, cose you’ve got sich a nice squeeze for a choaker. But they guvs it you nother side of the fish-pond, cully, – vot do you say to that, my nobby Cracksman?].

3. (US Und.) to be sent to prison.

1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service vi: Gone Over, sent to the Penitentiary, or other prison.
1882		‘The Jargon of Thieves’ in Derry Jrnl 8 Sept. 6/5: If [...] a safe robber had been sent to San Quentin [the thief] would say ‘A gopher-cracker has gone over to the bean ranch’ .
1923		D. Hammett ‘The Second-Story Angel’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 218: Don’t make no diff’ whether you make charges against her or not – she’ll go over for plenty anyways.
1930		D. Hammett Maltese Falcon (1965) 437: You killed Miles and you’re going over for it.

4. (orig. US) to succeed.

1915		implied in go over big
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 75: It went over, as you put it, corking.
1932		W.R. Burnett Giant Swing 220: Got anything particular to say?’ ‘Well, I hope my show goes over, here. I hope Middleburg likes it.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 48: It went over.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 60: And, incidentally, the Needle Trades Delivery Service, Inc. would go over with a bang.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 263: If we went over, we could maybe write our own ticket about the personnel.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 102: I was going over with them.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 190: Before he had finished the Super knew the patter was not going over.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 105: I don’t think it went over, did you?
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 140: Do you think that answer will go over with Mr. Wambsganss??
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 10: This went over really well at Parent/Teacher night, let me tell you.

5. (UK Und.) to commit a robbery.

1930

(con. 1910s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 35: Occasionally, when I have been ‘going over’ some mansion, I have encountered an ancient safe which simply screamed to be relieved of its contents.

6. (Aus.) of a man, to become a homosexual, of a woman to become a lesbian [fig. to go over to the other side in one’s sexuality; note earlier clerical use go over, to convert to Roman Catholicism].

[1917		W.A. Record (Perth) 28 Apr. 5/1: Rev. Dr. Harry Wilsop, one of the best known mem bers of the ritualistic party in the Episcopal Church in America, announced that he was ‘going over’ to the Catholic Church].
c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 10: go over: (Of a male) to become a homosexual. (Of a woman) to become a lesbian.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

7. (US und.) to turn state’s evidence.

1963

(con. 1919) E. Asinof Eight Men Out 175: The word was out that [Eddie] Cicotte had gone over and was spitting up his guts.

8. (US police/und.) for a vice squad police officer to change their allegiance and lifestyle from the force to the underworld.

1967

R. Conot Rivers of Blood 165: [f.n.] It is a well-known phenomenon that when officers are left too long on the vice squad [. . .] they begin to ‘go over,’ adopting the behaviorisms and mores of the criminals with whom they are dealing, and shifting their primary allegiance.

9. to inspect.

1996

J. Cameron It Was An Accident 11: I went over my pattie.

10. (NZ prison) to commit suicide.

1999

D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 32: go over v. To commit suicide, especially from a drug overdose.

11. (drugs) to overdose [i.e. go over the limit].

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 163: Kinky didn’t go over [...] Someone did him in.

In phrases

go over big (v.) (orig. US)

1. to be notably successful.

1915		Munsey’s Mag 53 652: The play had ‘gone over big.’ She had an enormous ovation, there had been thirty curtain calls; the audience had insisted she must make a speech. Reben had said the play would earn a mint of money.
1918		N.Y. State Pharmaceutical Assoc. 40 185: If this thing does not go over, and go over big, it is not going to be the fault of the Commercial Travelers.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 281: These synthetic actors [...] are going over big with their parents.
1926		R. Lardner ‘Rhythm’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 352: His symphony went over fairly ‘big’.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 380: She babbled that the dance was going over big and would make money.
1945		J. Maclaren-Ross Swag, the Spy and the Soldier in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 26 40: One or two of those watches’d go over big, tosheroon apiece.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 92: She is convinced that I shall go over big.
1954		‘Hot Rod Lexicon’ in Hepster’s Dict. 22: Willie went over big with the kids in Flushing yesterday.
1954		M. Rubin ‘Gold Ring’ in Margulies Back Alley Jungle (1963) 101: It went over big. The judge was boiling and screamed this menace would never harm children again.
1961		G. Marx letter 5 July Groucho Letters (1967) 143: She has some money in the play and if it goes over big she may open up again.
1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 51: He went over. Big. Very big.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 30: We’re gettin’ ready to go over big.

2. to make a good impression.

1930		K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan 347: ‘That went over big!’ he thought.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 149: This kittenish behaviour, which Dot delighted in and knew how to put over so well, went over big with Tommy.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 60: I’ll say to her, ‘I tawt all th’ angels was in heav’n’ – that goes over big you.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 118: I want you to meet some of my boys [...] You’d go over big with them.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 168: I’ve not made the impression I hoped. And I did think I was going over big, too.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 112: Cabiness laughed. ‘I bet that went over big.’.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 204: That would go over big with a jury.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 125: Certainly wouldn’t go over very big back at the homestead.
1990		Bill Crow Jazz Anecdotes 47: If you played there, and went over big, then you had made it.
2005		H.L. White Ragging It 174: Ziegfeld put them into the 1909 Follies, where they went over big.

go over like a lead balloon (v.)

see under lead n.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

go over the fence (v.)

(Aus.) to be unreasonable.

1955

N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 233/1: edge over (go over the fence) – be unreasonable.

go over the highside (v.) [highside v.] (US)

1. to lose control, to lose one’s composure.

1990

Niemann Boomer 151: I was going over the high side. I had no control.

2. to fall off one’s motorbike when turning a corner.

1966

H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 103: This is called ‘going over the high side’ [...] ‘We’ve all been over the high side, baby. You know what that is? It’s when your bike starts sliding when you steam into a curve at seventy or eighty ... She slides towards the high side of the curve, baby, until she hits a curb or rail or a soft shoulder or whatever’s there, and then she flips ... That’s what you call making a classic get-off, baby.’.

go over the hill (v.)

see under hill n.

go over the hump (v.)

see under hump n.¹

go over the Styx (v.)

see go across the river under river n.

go over the tops of trees (v.)

to be very drunk.

1770

Gent.’s Mag. 559: Besides these modes of expressing drunkenness by what a man is, what he has, and what he has had, the following express it by what he does — [...] 78 Goes over the Tops of Trees; this is provincial, and alludes to the unequal pace of a drunken man, like that of stepping from a high Tree to a low one, and from a low one to a high one.