Go, v. i. [imp.
Went (wĕnt); p. p. Gone
(gŏn; 115); p. pr. & vb. n. Going.
Went comes from the AS, wendan. See Wend,
v. i.] [OE. gan, gon, AS.
gān, akin to D. gaan, G. gehn,
gehen, OHG. gēn, gān, SW.
gå, Dan. gaae; cf. Gr. kicha`nai 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, v. i.,
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."
Chaucer.
You know that love
Will creep in service where it can not go.
Shak.
Thou must run to him; for thou hast staid so long that
going will scarce serve the turn.
Shak.
He fell from running to going, and from
going to clambering upon his hands and his knees.
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.
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 ?
Shak.
I think, as the world goes, he was a good sort
of man enough.
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.
Dryden.
To master the foul flend there goeth some
complement knowledge of theology.
Sir W.
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 P. 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.
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.
Shak.
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 W.
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.
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.
Swift.
(b) (Naut.) 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 (Naut.), 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. [Colloq.]
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. [Low]
(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. [Colloq.] -- To go in and out,
to do the business of life; to live; to have free access.
John x. 9. -- To go in for. [Colloq.]
(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.
Dickens.
-- To go in to or 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.
Shak.
(b) To cease; to intermit; as, this sickness
went off. (c) To die.
Shak. (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.
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.
Shak.
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.
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.
Tillotson.
(c) To transcend; to surpass.
(d) To be postponed; as, the bill went
over for the session. (e) (Chem.)
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. [Scot.] -- 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 (Colloq.),
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, ill, or
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.
(d) To miss success. -- To let
go, to allow to depart; to quit one's hold; to
release.