go out v.
1. (UK Und.) to work as a thief.
![]() | Memoirs in McLachlan (1964) 82: For a few weeks we continued to go out with one or other of the gentlemen frequenting the Swan. | |
![]() | Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 90: Go out — or going-out; to rob in the streets, is understood. | |
![]() | Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 333: I waited until he was unslang’d and come up to London, when [...] we took the necessary steps to go out together. |
2. (Aus./US/US prison) to die.
![]() | Fudge Family in Paris 23: For a lad who goes into the world, Dick, like me, / Should have his neck tied up you know [...] / Almost as tight as some lads who go out of it. | |
![]() | Soldiers’ Stories and Sailors’ Yarns 164: She told me that Don Pedro, recovered from his wound, after plaguing her [...] with a churchyard cough [...] had at last ‘gone out’. | |
![]() | Checkers 116: I wish to heaven I had ‘gone out;’ instead of getting well. | |
![]() | Boy’s Own Paper 22 June 594: Poor old chap! He was to ‘go out’ far sooner than any of us expected! | |
![]() | Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 95: We done poor Muvver proud when she went out – / A slap-up send-orf, trimmed wiv tears an’ crape. | ‘Uncle Jim’ in|
![]() | White Moll 34: I know. They told me. I’d have known it anyway. I’m going out. | |
![]() | (con. WW1) | L.M. 8046 145: I gave him one of my morphine tablets. That left one for Neilson and two for me; one for a wound and two to go out with if I were badly crippled.|
![]() | Fight Stories May 🌐 I was fighting for the privilege of me and my pard going out clean. | ‘Fist and Fang’|
![]() | Scarlet Pansy 328: He lapsed into unconsciousness, breathing more and more slowly. At the end of half an hour he went out. | |
![]() | Arab Patrol 294: An agent of L’Espionage Centrale was bound to catch it one way or another [...] it was better to go out this way, after letting daylight into thirteen dirty Arabs. | |
![]() | Thrilling Detective Feb. 🌐 That shiv was in for keeps. He must have gone out in a hurry. | ‘Death with Music’ in|
![]() | In For Life 141: They [i.e. the condemned men] would [...] be dressed in their ‘going out’ suits. | |
![]() | Proud Highway (1997) 513: I think that’s the way to go out, running the Big Sur highway on a big cycle with no lights. | letter 2 May in|
![]() | (con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 205: It was the stand-up thing to do [...] Going out doing some other guy a good turn. | |
![]() | (con. 1967) Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 174: The screams of a guy going out badly. | |
![]() | 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 133: Fuck it, we’re all gang members, we’re all gonna have to die. Let’s just go out like villains. | |
![]() | Night Gardener 350: The old man shouldn’t go out like that. He doesn’t deserve it. | |
![]() | ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] ‘Do what you came to do, ’cause I ain’t beggin’ nobody but Jesus.’ Shameeq smiled. ‘Least you ain’t go out like no sucker’. |
3. to escape from prison.
![]() | Keys to Crookdom 406: Going out. Leaving prison. | |
![]() | Guardian Weekend 6 Nov. 40: ‘We’re going out tonight,’ Turner whispered. |
4. (orig. US) to faint, to lose consciousness; esp. in phr. go out like a light.
![]() | ‘En l’air!’ 60: Just as I arrived the captain-observer was lighting a match to set fire to the machine. I only had an instant to think, so I hit him under the jaw and out he went. | |
![]() | Hell Riders 261: I felt a sock on the back of my head. Funny thing is, I didn’t go right out. | |
![]() | Dames Don’t Care (1960) 120: She waddles over to me an’ she lifts up her foot an’ she kicks me in the face [...] I just see a lot more stars an’ I go sick as hell an’ I go out again. | |
![]() | Nobody Lives for Ever 173: Windy gets so sore he belts his girl friend a couple and knocks her out—he claims he just slapped her. Well, before she goes out she yells bloody murder and somebody calls a cop. | |
![]() | Ghost Squad 182: I let him have a fourpenny one on the chin. He went out like a light. | |
![]() | (con. 1965-66) | Rumor of War 282: ‘He keeps going out, sir,’ said one of the riflemen. ‘If he don’t get evacked pretty quick, we’re afraid he’ll go out for good’.
5. (US black) to act, to behave.
![]() | Crack War (1991) 107: Mustafa states, ‘I’m not going out like that.’ [i.e. in jail]. | |
![]() | 🎵 You fronted big man and then went out like a ho. | ‘Trill Ass Nigga’|
![]() | A2Z. | et al.|
![]() | 🎵 Never goin out out like simps, walkin your block with gangsta limp. | ‘Front, Back and Side to Side’
6. (US black) to sell out, to abandon one’s principles.
![]() | A2Z. | et al.
7. see under go v.
In phrases
see haddums n.
(UK Und.) to be transported.
![]() | Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 87/2: Nadin asked where Jackson was? Fearns replied, ‘he is gone out of the country, about some heifers.’. |
(US black) to rob in public places, e.g. the elevated railroad.
![]() | Vice Lords 60: We used to rob those peoples on the ‘L’ all the time [...] We used to do it from Tuesday to Saturday—go out on peoples and take they money and stuff. |
(US prison) to back down under pressure.
![]() | Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 266: A person who breaks down under pressure or slinks away from a threatening situation is said to go out the back door. |
(Aus.) to become obsolete.
![]() | Cry of Storm-Bird 2: Others [...] were still on the pedal-wireless system, but most wirelesses were up-to-date and pedalling had ‘gone out with the blades.’ [AND]. | |
![]() | Terminol. Shearing Industry i. 29: Gone out with the blades, old-fashioned, no longer wanted [AND]. |