Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a failure, an impossibility.

1868		‘A. Johnson is a Goner!’ Grant Songster 5: Johnson is a goner, / And Grant’s going to occupy the chair.
1876		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer 256: Whoever nipped the whiskey in No. 2, nipped the money, too, I reckon – anyways it’s a goner for us, Tom.

2. a doomed person, anyone who cannot avoid an unpleasant fate, one on the verge of death; also fig.

1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Mar. 22 2/3: If a stranger should dare to drink one drop of spirituous liquor, you might consider him a gone-er; for the fanatics would [...] proclaim it in the public places.
1846		D. Corcoran Picking from N.O. Picayune 101: I sees [...] that you is a reg’lar goner. I’m blow’d if Pease horehound candy [...] can cure you.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 22 jan. 1/3: He must ‘fire-up’ [i.e. run faster] or he was a ‘gon-er!’.
1858		Wkly Advertiser (Montgomery, AL) 28 July n.p.: ‘Jake tuk a fit [...] foamed at his mouth [...] bit his tongue orful bad and Dr Snipes said Jake was a “goner” and wouldn’t never git over it no how!’.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 51/2: He had been ‘boozing’ out very freely, and finding himelf a gonner, very wisely placed his ‘sugar’ in care of the landlord.
1878		J.H. Beadle Western Wilds 611: ‘Neighbor,’ says he, ‘you’re a goner; them’s chintz-bugs, and every head o’ wheat that an’t cut, ’ll be et up in forty-eight hours.’.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 114: He was just about played out, when he said to me, ‘George, I’m a goner’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 Sept. 3/2: ‘It’s that darned beer, Harry. I’m a gonner’.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 212: A few more of her meddlings and she’s a goner.
1898		Regiment 11 June 166/3: ‘He [i.e. a bear] was gaining on me rapidly [...] and I had nearly given myself up as a goner’.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 27 July 675: Oh! the Medicus of our line found me, nearly a goner, in my hut.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 442: goner, n. One whose condition, physical or moral, is hopeless.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 100: Down in the vaults of saint Werburgh’s [...] they have to bore a hole in the coffins sometimes to let out the bad gas [...] One whiff of that and you’re a goner.
1937		D. Fuchs Low Company 212: He’s a goner. We’re wasting time here.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 65: If he became rattled they were goners.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 153: He’s a goner [...] It’s Crane’s word against his, and Groggy’s got to take Crane’s.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 60: [Y]ou know you’re a goner before you walk into court.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 97: I thought I was a goner, hanging from the skylight in my underpants. But the cop didn’t shoot.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 35: If they cop me in this rig-out I reckon I’m a gonner.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 31: I thought you were a goner.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 160: Oh God. How the hell did he fakkin find out? I’m a gonner.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 152: Nothing I said was gonna make any difference. Stookie was already a goner.
1991		D. Widgery Some Lives! 192: Oh, my God, I’m a goner. Whatcha going to do, Doc?
2004		C. Hiaasen Skinny Dip 256: Charles Regis Perrone was doomed [...] The man was already a goner. Toast.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 299: Connolly wants to snap back, but [...] he has nothing. He’s a goner.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 301: ‘He’s not gonna make it [...] He’s a goner’.

3. lit. or fig., one who is dead, or something that is finished or ruined.

1848		Dly Crescent (New Orleans, LA) 7 Mar. 2/1: Had he dipped his proboscis under the water, he certainly would have been a ‘gorner’ [sic].
1850		‘Dow, Jr’ Sun. Mercury (N.Y.) 6 Jan. 2/6: Last Monday [...] the old year was not quite a goner.
1850		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 10 Feb. 3/2: I rekon ther little Metrop Stakes are ‘a gone-er,’ for what twixt ther [...] blunders of ther Andicappers, thare's nothink but ther skelleton on it left.
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 24 May n.p.: We think some people will be very careful how they use hot water [...] til they have a sure case of a ‘goner’.
1864		Moulton letter in Drickamer Fort Lyon to Harper’s Ferry (1987) 170: If I had added any more I would have been a ‘goner’.
1879		G.G. Hart E.C.B. Susan Jane 14: By Jove, he’s a goner as sure as yer born.
1886		Times & Democrat (Orangeburg, SC) 4 Mar. 2/1: Ef the good Lord don’t send us somethin’ ter eat, me en my young uns is goners.
1891		Whitstable Times 11 July 6/4: ‘No!’ ‘Sure as shooting [...] you’ll be a goner’.
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 7 Feb. 3/3: No more enjoy your pars and jokes, Nor laugh at hits about such blokes / As Demon Donny (he’s a gonner).
1894		S. Crane in N.Y. Press 25 Nov. in Stallman (1966) 94: [of a burning building] ‘She’s a goner.’.
1903		A. Adams Log of a Cowboy 129: A sheep can die any time he makes up his mind to by simply shutting both eyes – then he’s a goner.
1905		Marvel III:53 7: I’m afraid he’s a goner.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 35: ‘If ever I fall down with this on my back I’m a goner,’ he told another packer.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 5 Jan. 9/5: Sez he:— ‘That was near a goner / For this chicken, I declare!’.
1918		J.E. Rendinell diary 23 July One Man’s War (1928) 163: Gee, kid, I thought you was a goner. We left you for dead.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 129: Is he a goner?
1933		E.A. Robertson Ordinary Families 120: If he gybes all standing she’s a gonner.
1946		I. Bolton ‘Do I Wake or Sleep’ N.Y. Mosaic (1999) 119: My God! Did she mean to tell him that Percival Jones, practically a goner, had got up from that bed and walked out of the room on his own two feet?
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 86: I’d have been a goner but for a slice of luck.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 128: I done thought I was a goner.
1956		I. Fleming Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 191: He’s a goner now.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 122: Ole Tearose a gonner – hair singed to a frazzle.
1977		(con. 1940s) O. Manning Danger Tree 156: Three chaps hit, sir. Two badly. One of them a gonner.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 147: The left fender and door were goners.
1980		(con. 1941) G. Greene Ways of Escape (1981) 85: Only the head and shoulders visible and a clot of blood by the head [...] ‘He’s a goner.’.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 95: I got my second wind and ran free. Not Colin! He was a gonner.
1999		Observer Screen 24 Oct. 16: And now you’re gone, if not a goner.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 89: Thought yew wuz a fuckin goner, boy.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘Could have sworn the other slut was a goner’.
2010		K. Richards Life 24: Look out, Charlie, here it [i.e. a mortar shell] comes. We’re all goners! We’re all goners!
2019		G. Disher Peace 27: ‘[I]t’s a good thing my reaction times are above average or you’d have been a goner’.

4. an obsessed person, i.e. one who is ‘gone’ on something or someone.

1845		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune (1847) 101: ‘She is all that painting can express or youthful poets fancy, when they love!’ ‘O, I sees,’ says Charlie, ‘that you is a reg’lar goner.’.
1865		V.C. Giles Rags and Hope in Lasswell (1961) 260: I knew at that very moment that the ‘Major’ was a ‘goner’.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 5 Oct. 4/3: The policeman had him examined / And found that he was a goner. / So he carted him away, again / To the Kew Asylum yonder.
c.1898		Harry Dacre ‘Katie Connor’ 🎵 On my honour, Katie Connor is the nicest girl you’ll meet; / I dote on her – ‘I’m a goner’ – she’s just nice enough to eat.
a.1913		Murray & Leigh [perf. Frank Seeley] ‘The Amateur Whitewasher’ 🎵 In and out the corners / Round the Johnny Horners / We were a pair of fair clean goners.
1937		D. Fuchs Low Company 13: He’s a goner. Once they get the racing bug, it’s all over.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 97: The Sky is a goner, for this is one of the most beautiful dolls anybody ever sees on Broadway.
1959		S. Bellow Henderson The Rain King 178: A powerful ambition had me and I was a goner.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 37: I am an absolute goner [...] I am gonzo about this woman.

5. in weak use, one who is very ill.

1887

‘’Arry at the Sea-Side’ Punch 10 Sept. 111/2: Boat’s coming in from Boolong [...] The wind blows a little bit strong, / And there’s bound to be lots on ’em quisby, some regular goners, dessay.

6. (Aus./US) one who has departed.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Dec. 16/4: [B]y the time he’d done arguin’ the pint with the dorg, I was a clean goner.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 50: Well, well, Kingie, If Artie’s a goner, who can you count on in this crazy world?

7. a sucker, a pushover.

1945		A. Kober Parm Me 82: Leave me in a canoe with a poetry book and I’m a goner.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] If Rod’s bottom lip so much as trembled while he talked about Isabella, I was a goner.