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Chambers (1908)

Go

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[A.S. gán, contr. for gangan, to go; cf. Ger. gehen, Dut. gaan.]

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Go, gō, v.i. to pass from one place to another: to be in motion: to proceed: to walk: to depart from: to lead in any direction: to extend: to tend: to be about to do: to pass in report: to pass, as in payment: to be accounted in value: to happen in a particular way: to turn out: to fare: to give way:—pr.p. gō′ing; pa.t. went; pa.p. gone (gon).—n. affair, matter, as in 'a pretty go:' fashion, as in 'all the go:' energy, activity.—adj. Go′-ahead′, dashing, energetic.—ns. Go′-between′, Gō′er-between′ (Shak.), one who is agent between two parties; Go′-by, escape by artifice: evasion: any intentional disregard: in coursing, the act of passing by or ahead in motion.—adj. Go-to-meet′ing (coll.), used of clothes, good and fit for public use.—Go about (B.), to set one's self about: to seek: to endeavour; Go about one's business, to attend to one's duties: to be off; Go abroad, to go to a foreign country: to leave one's house; Go against, to invade: to be repugnant to; Go aside, to err: to withdraw, retire; Go at, to attack; Go beyond (B.), to overreach; Go down, to sink, decline: to be believed or accepted; Go far, to last long; Go for, to pass for: to attack: to take up a line of policy; Go for nothing, to have no value; Go hard with, to be in real difficulty or danger; Go in and out, to come and go freely; Go in for, to be in favour of: to aim after; Go in unto, to have sexual intercourse with; Go it, to act in a striking or dashing manner—often in imperative by way of encouragement; Go off, to leave: to die: to explode: to fade; Go on, to proceed; Go one better, to take a bet and add another more to it: to excel another in fitness for some purpose; Go one's way, to depart; Go out, to become extinct or expire; Go over, to study, to examine; Go the whole hog, to go to the fullest extent; Go through, to perform thoroughly, to accomplish; Go through fire and water, to undertake any trouble or risks for one's end (from the usage in ancient ordeals); Go to, come now (a kind of interjection, like the L. agedum, the Gr. ἄγε νυν); Go to pieces, to break up entirely, to be dismembered; Go to the wall, to be pushed aside, passed by; Go under, to be called by some title or character: to be overwhelmed or ruined, to die; Go well, to prosper; Go with, to accompany: to agree, accord; Go without saying, to be plainly self-evident (Fr. Cela va sans dire).—Great go, a degree examination, compared with Little go, a preliminary examination in the university of Cambridge; Let go, to release, to quit hold of; No go, not possible: of no use. [A.S. gán, contr. for gangan, to go; cf. Ger. gehen, Dut. gaan.]

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  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

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