go

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Gone. Geoffrey Chaucer

Origin: OE. gan, gon, AS. gān, akin to D. gaan, G. gehn, gehen, OHG. gēn, gān, SW. gå, Dan. gaae; cf. Gr. κιχάναι to reach, overtake, Skr. hā to go, AS. gangan, and E. gang. The past tense in AS., eode, is from the root i to go, as is also Goth. iddja went. √47a. Cf. Gang, intransitive verb, Wend.

1. To pass from one place to another; to be in motion; to be in a state not motionless or at rest; to proceed; to advance; to make progress; — used, in various applications, of the movement of both animate and inanimate beings, by whatever means, and also of the movements of the mind; also figuratively applied.

2. To move upon the feet, or step by step; to walk; also, to walk step by step, or leisurely.

☞ In old writers go is much used as opposed to run, or ride. “Whereso I go or ride.” Geoffrey Chaucer

You know that love Will creep in service where it can not go.— William Shakespeare

Thou must run to him; for thou hast staid so long that going will scarce serve the turn.— William Shakespeare

He fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and his knees.— John Bunyan

☞ In Chaucer go is used frequently with the pronoun in the objective used reflexively; as, he goeth him home.

3. To be passed on fron one to another; to pass; to circulate; hence, with for, to have currency; to be taken, accepted, or regarded.

The man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.— 1 Sa. xvii. 12.

[The money] should go according to its true value.— John Locke

4. To proceed or happen in a given manner; to fare; to move on or be carried on; to have course; to come to an issue or result; to succeed; to turn out.

How goes the night, boy ?— William Shakespeare

I think, as the world goes, he was a good sort of man enough.— John Arbuthnot

Whether the cause goes for me or against me, you must pay me the reward.— I Watts.

5. To proceed or tend toward a result, consequence, or product; to tend; to conduce; to be an ingredient; to avail; to apply; to contribute; — often with the infinitive; as, this goes to show.

Against right reason all your counsels go.— John Dryden

To master the foul flend there goeth some complement knowledge of theology.— Sir Walter Scott

6. To apply one's self; to set one's self; to undertake.

Seeing himself confronted by so many, like a resolute orator, he went not to denial, but to justify his cruel falsehood.— Sir Philip Sidney

☞ Go, in this sense, is often used in the present participle with the auxiliary verb to be, before an infinitive, to express a future of intention, or to denote design; as, I was going to say; I am going to begin harvest.

7. To proceed by a mental operation; to pass in mind or by an act of the memory or imagination; — generally with over or through.

By going over all these particulars, you may receive some tolerable satisfaction about this great subject.— Robert South

8. To be with young; to be pregnant; to gestate.

The fruit she goes with, I pray for heartily, that it may find Good time, and live.— William Shakespeare

9. To move from the person speaking, or from the point whence the action is contemplated; to pass away; to leave; to depart; — in opposition to stay and come.

I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God;... only ye shall not go very far away.— Ex. viii. 28.

10. To pass away; to depart forever; to be lost or ruined; to perish; to decline; to decease; to die.

By Saint George, he's gone! That spear wound hath our master sped.— Sir Walter Scott

11. To reach; to extend; to lead; as, a line goes across the street; his land goes to the river; this road goes to New York.

His amorous expressions go no further than virtue may allow.— John Dryden

12. To have recourse; to resort; as, to go to law.

☞ Go is used, in combination with many prepositions and adverbs, to denote motion of the kind indicated by the preposition or adverb, in which, and not in the verb, lies the principal force of the expression; as, to go against to go into, to go out, to go aside, to go astray, etc.

Go to, come; move; go away; — a phrase of exclamation, serious or ironical. — To go a-begging, not to be in demand; to be undesired. — To go about. (a) To set about; to enter upon a scheme of action; to undertake. “They went about to slay him.” Acts ix. 29.

They never go about... to hide or palliate their vices.— Jonathan Swift

(b) Nautical To tack; to turn the head of a ship; to wear. — To go abraod. (a) To go to a foreign country. (b) To go out of doors. (c) To become public; to be published or disclosed; to be current.

Then went this saying abroad among the brethren.— John xxi. 23.

— To go against. (a) To march against; to attack. (b) To be in opposition to; to be disagreeable to. — To go ahead. (a) To go in advance. (b) To go on; to make progress; to proceed. — To go and come. See To come and go, under Come. — To go aside. (a) To withdraw; to retire.

He... went aside privately into a desert place.— Luke. ix. 10.

(b) To go from what is right; to err. Num. v. 29.— To go back on. (a) To retrace (one's path or footsteps). (b) To abandon; to turn against; to betray. Slang, U. S. — To go below (Naut), to go below deck. — To go between, to interpose or mediate between; to be a secret agent between parties; in a bad sense, to pander. — To go beyond. See under Beyond. — To go by, to pass away unnoticed; to omit. — To go by the board Nautical, to fall or be carried overboard; as, the mast went by the board. — To go down. (a) To descend. (b) To go below the horizon; as, the sun has gone down. (c) To sink; to founder; — said of ships, etc. (d) To be swallowed; — used literally or figuratively. colloquial

Nothing so ridiculous,... but it goes down whole with him for truth.— L' Estrange.

— To go far. (a) To go to a distance. (b) To have much weight or influence. — To go for. (a) To go in quest of. (b) To represent; to pass for. (c) To favor; to advocate. (d) To attack; to assault. informal (e) To sell for; to be parted with for (a price). — To go for nothing, to be parted with for no compensation or result; to have no value, efficacy, or influence; to count for nothing. — To go forth. (a) To depart from a place. (b) To be divulged or made generally known; to emanate.

The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.— Micah iv. 2.

— To go hard with, to trouble, pain, or endanger. — To go in, to engage in; to take part. colloquial — To go in and out, to do the business of life; to live; to have free access. John x. 9. — To go in for. colloquial (a) To go for; to favor or advocate (a candidate, a measure, etc.). (b) To seek to acquire or attain to (wealth, honor, preferment, etc.) (c) To complete for (a reward, election, etc.). (d) To make the object of one's labors, studies, etc.

He was as ready to go in for statistics as for anything else.— Charles Dickens

— To go in to or To go in unto. (a) To enter the presence of. Esther iv. 16. (b) To have sexual intercourse with. Script. — To go into. (a) To speak of, investigate, or discuss (a question, subject, etc.). (b) To participate in (a war, a business, etc.). — To go large. (Naut) See under Large. — To go off. (a) To go away; to depart.

The leaders... will not go off until they hear you.— William Shakespeare

(b) To cease; to intermit; as, this sickness went off. (c) To die. William Shakespeare (d) To explode or be discharged; — said of gunpowder, of a gun, a mine, etc. (e) To find a purchaser; to be sold or disposed of. (f) To pass off; to take place; to be accomplished.

The wedding went off much as such affairs do.— Mrs. Caskell.

— To go on. (a) To proceed; to advance further; to continue; as, to go on reading. (b) To be put or drawn on; to fit over; as, the coat will not go on. — To go all fours, to correspond exactly, point for point.

It is not easy to make a simile go on all fours.— Thomas Babington Macaulay

— To go out. (a) To issue forth from a place. (b) To go abroad; to make an excursion or expedition.

There are other men fitter to go out than I.— William Shakespeare

What went ye out for to see ?— Matt. xi. 7, 8, 9.

(c) To become diffused, divulged, or spread abroad, as news, fame etc. (d) To expire; to die; to cease; to come to an end; as, the light has gone out.

Life itself goes out at thy displeasure.— Joseph Addison

— To go over. (a) To traverse; to cross, as a river, boundary, etc.; to change sides.

I must not go over Jordan.— Deut. iv. 22.

Let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan.— Deut. iii. 25.

Ishmael... departed to go over to the Ammonites.— Jer. xli. 10.

(b) To read, or study; to examine; to review; as, to go over one's accounts.

If we go over the laws of Christianity, we shall find that... they enjoin the same thing.— John Tilllotson

(c) To transcend; to surpass. (d) To be postponed; as, the bill went over for the session. (e) Chemistry To be converted (into a specified substance or material); as, monoclinic sulphur goes over into orthorhombic, by standing; sucrose goes over into dextrose and levulose. — To go through. (a) To accomplish; as, to go through a work. (b) To suffer; to endure to the end; as, to go through a surgical operation or a tedious illness. (c) To spend completely; to exhaust, as a fortune. (d) To strip or despoil (one) of his property. slang (e) To botch or bungle a business. Scottish — To go through with, to perform, as a calculation, to the end; to complete. — To go to ground. (a) To escape into a hole; — said of a hunted fox. (b) To fall in battle. — To go to naught (colloquial.), to prove abortive, or unavailling. — To go under. (a) To set; — said of the sun. (b) To be known or recognized by (a name, title, etc.). (c) To be overwhelmed, submerged, or defeated; to perish; to succumb. — To go up, to come to nothing; to prove abortive; to fail. slang — To go upon, to act upon, as a foundation or hypothesis. — To go with. (a) To accompany. (b) To coincide or agree with. (c) To suit; to harmonize with. — To go well with, To go ill with, To go hard with, to affect (one) in such manner. — To go without, to be, or to remain, destitute of. — To go wrong. (a) To take a wrong road or direction; to wander or stray. (b) To depart from virtue. (c) To happen unfortunately; to unexpectedly cause a mishap or failure. (d) To miss success; to fail. — To let go, to allow to depart; to quit one's hold; to release.

1. To take, as a share in an enterprise; to undertake or become responsible for; to bear a part in.

They to go equal shares in the booty.— Sir Roger L'Estrange

2. To bet or wager; as, I'll go you a shilling. colloquial

To go halves, to share with another equally. — To go it, to behave in a wild manner; to be uproarious; to carry on; also, to proceed; to make progress. colloquial — To go it alone Card games, to play a hand without the assistance of one's partner. — To go it blind. (a) To act in a rash, reckless, or headlong manner. slang (b) Card games To bet without having examined the cards. — To go one's way, to set forth; to depart.

1. Act; working; operation. obsolete

So gracious were the goes of marriage.— John Marston

2. A circumstance or occurrence; an incident. slang

This is a pretty go.— Charles Dickens

3. The fashion or mode; as, quite the go. colloquial

4. Noisy merriment; as, a high go. colloquial

5. A glass of spirits. slang

6. Power of going or doing; energy; vitality; perseverance; push; as, there is no go in him. colloquial

7. Cribbage That condition in the course of the game when a player can not lay down a card which will not carry the aggregate count above thirty-one.

8. Something that goes or is successful; a success; as, he made a go of it; also, an agreement.

“Well,” said Fleming, “is it a go?”— Francis Bret Harte

Great go, Little go, the final and the preliminary examinations for a degree. Slang, Eng. Univ. — No go, a failure; a fiasco. slang William M. Thackeray — On the go, moving about; unsettled. colloquial

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: 1913 supplement

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

<games, application> A thinking game with an oriental origin estimated to be around 4000 years old. Nowadays, the game is played by millions of people in (most notably) China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. In the Western world the game is practised by a yearly increasing number of players. On the Internet Go players meet, play and talk 24 hours/day on the Internet Go Server (IGS).

(http://cwi.nl/~jansteen/go/go.html).

Usenet newsgroup: news:rec.games.go.

(1995-03-17)