Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a promiscuous, sexually available woman.

1823		Egan Grose’s Class Dict. n.p.: She’s a develish [sic] good piece, a hell of a goer.
1837		‘John Thomas & Peggy Perkins’ in Flash Olio in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 186: They made John Thomas dress himself, and show’d him to the door, / And then they call’d poor Peggy Perkins nothing but — a goer.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 312: You know this new dressmaker [...] swell dame with blondine hair? Well, she’s a pretty good goer.
1930		(con. 1914–18) ‘My Nelly’ Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier 79: My Nelly’s a goer / She’s got such wonderful eyes of blue.
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 56: A banger’s a goer – a girl who’ll do anything with anyone.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 353: The dog in the office in the touching romantic comedy: take her glasses off and she’s a goer.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 109: Rena was a goer. A wild woman when she wanted to be.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 92: Mairead, now, shiz a right fuckin slapper she is; fit, like, but a right fuckin goer.
2004		Guardian Weekend 7 Aug. 46/3: My parents’ pal [...] clearly thought that it meant that I was, to use his antedeluvian vernacular, a ‘goer’.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘You know she gets all her information from rooting people? Bit of a goer’.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 178: A total goer and a tidy ride.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 190: Oh, they’re [i.e. old women] all up for it. They’re all little goers at heart.

2. an enthusiastic if not always competent amateur.

1896		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 30 Dec. 2/6: [A] young scorcher came up to win the bicycle race [...] he looked like a real ‘go’er’ too.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Mar. 6/2: Lady Constance, according to all accounts, is a bit of a goer. She thinks nothing of being the only woman in a shooting party travelling through Asia after big game.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 3 May 12/2: They Say [...] That Ivy S [...] is going to challenge Harry B for a purse of sovs. They are both good goers.
1930		Queenslander (Brisbane) 10 Jan. 10/5: In his day ‘Smacker’ McCarthy had been a ‘goer’.
1945		Western Mail (Perth) 6 Dec. 18/2: Right oh, Joe. Don’t forget you’re a goer today.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 481/2: C.20.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] I dedicate this book to the goers in life, the people who will not be beaten, who get back up, dust off and choose laughter as the best option.

3. a flirt.

1908		J. Gunn We of the Never-Never (1962) 3: The Katherine was [...] inclined to ‘reckon the missus a goer,’ and that public sympathy was with the stockman.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Sept. 5/2: I suppose she’ll be marrying into our set, / And then we shall all have to know her. / She’s decent, I’m told, though a vulgar coquette – / The sort that the men call a ‘goer’.
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 213: ‘My word, she’s a little goer, eh?’ ‘You’re right. At that age, too! Fast little cat.’.

4. something that is guaranteed to work out.

1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] ’So [...] am I in? Is it [a plan for a robbery] a goer?’.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 9: His instincts said this was a goer.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘I reckon this case is a goer’.