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Go


GO, verb intransitive preterit tense went; participle passive gone.

1. In a general sense, to move; to pass; to proceed from one place, state or station to another; opposed to resting. A mill goes by water or by steam; a ship goes at the rate of five knots an hour; a clock goes fast or slow; a horse goes lame; a fowl or a ball goes with velocity through the air.

The mourners go about the streets. Ecclesiastes 12:5.

2. To walk; to move on the feet or step by step. The child begins to go alone at a year old.

You know that love

Will creep in service where it cannot go

3. To walk leisurely; not to run.

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

4. To travel; to journey by land or water. I must go to Boston. He has gone to Philadelphia. The minister is going to France.

5. To depart; to move from a place; opposed to come. The mail goes and comes every day, or twice a week.

I will let you go that ye may sacrifice. Exodus 8:1.

6. To proceed; to pass.

And so the jest goes round.

7. To move; to pass in any manner or to any end; as, to go to bed; to go to dinner; to go to war.

8. To move or pass customarily from place to place, denoting custom or practice. The child goes to school. A ship goes regularly to London. We go to church.

9. To proceed from one state or opinion to another; to change. He goes from one opinion to another. His estate is going to ruin.

10. To proceed in mental operations; to advance; to penetrate. We can go but a very little way in developing the causes of things.

11. To proceed or advance in accomplishing an end. This sun will not go far towards full payment of the debt.

12. To apply; to be applicable. The argument goes to this point only; it goes to prove too much.

13. To apply one's self.

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

14. To have recourse to; as, to go to law.

15. To be about to do; as, I was going to say. I am going to begin harvest. [This use is chiefly confined to the participle.]

16. To pass; to be accounted in value. All this goes for nothing. This coin goes for a crown.

17. To circulate; to pass in report. The story goes.

18. To pass; to be received; to be accounted or understood to be.

And the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. 1 Samuel 17:32.

19. To move, or be in motion; as a machine. [See No.1.]

20. To move as fluid; to flow.

The god I am, whose yellow water flows

Around these fields, and fattens as it goes,

Tiber my name.

21. To have a tendency.

Against right reason all your counsels go

22. To be in compact or partnership.

They were to go equal shares in the booty.

23. To be guided or regulated; to proceed by some principle or rule. We are to go by the rules of law, or according to the precepts of scripture.

We are to go by another measure.

24. To be pregnant. The females of different animals go some a longer, some a shorter time.

25. To pass; to be alienated in payment or exchange. If our exports are of less value than our imports, our money must go to pay the balance.

26. To be loosed or released; to be freed from restraint. Let me go; let go the hand.

27. To be expended. His estate goes or has gone for spirituous liquors. [See No. 24.]

28. To extend; to reach. The line goes from one end to the other. His land goes to the bank of the Hudson.

29. to extend or lead in any direction. This road goes to Albany.

30. To proceed; to extend. This argument goes far towards proving the point. It goes a great way towards establishing the innocence of the accused.

31. To have effect; to extend in effect; to avail; to be of force or value. Money goes farther now than it did during the war.

32. To extend in meaning or purport.

His amorous expressions go no further than virtue may allow.

[In the three last examples, the sense of go depends on far, farther, further.]

33. To have a currency or use, as custom, opinion or manners.

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

34. To contribute; to conduce; to concur; to be an ingredient; with to or into. The substances which go into this composition. Many qualifications go to make up the well bred man.

35. To proceed; to be carried on. The business goes on well.

36. To proceed to final issue; to terminate; to succeed.

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

37. To proceed in a train, or in consequences.

How goes the night, boy?

38. To fare; to be in a good or ill state.

How goes it, comrade?

39. To have a tendency or effect; to operate.

These cases go to show that the court will vary the construction of instruments.

To go about, to set one's self to a business; to attempt; to endeavor.

They never go about to hide or palliate their vices.

1. In seamen's language, to tack; to turn the head of a ship.

To go abroad, to walk out of a house.

1. To be uttered, disclosed or published.

To go against, to invade; to march to attack.

1. To be in opposition; to be disagreeable.

To go aside, to withdraw; to retire into a private situation.

1. To err; to deviate from the right way.

To go astray, to wander; to break from an inclosure; also, to leave the right course; to depart from law or rule; to sin; to transgress.

To go away, to depart; to go to a distance.

To go between, to interpose; to mediate; to attempt to reconcile or to adjust differences.

To go by, to pass near and beyond.

1. To pass away unnoticed; to omit.

2. To fine or get in the conclusion.

In argument with men, a woman ever

GOes by the worse, whatever be her cause.

[A phrase now Little Used.]

To go down, to descend in any manner.

1. To fail; to come to nothing.

2. To be swallowed or received, not rejected. The doctrine of the divine right of kings will not go down in this period of the world.

To go forth to issue or depart out of a place.

To go forward, to advance.

To go hard with, to be in danger of a fatal issue; to have difficulty to escape.

To go in, to enter.

To go in to, to have sexual commerce with.

To go in and out, to do the business of life.

1. To go freely; to be at liberty. John 10:9.

To go off, to depart to a distance; to leave a place or station.

1. To die; to decease.

2. To be discharged, as fire arms; to explode.

To go on, to proceed; to advance forward.

1. To be put on, as a garment. The coat will not go on.

To go out, to issue forth; to depart from.

1. To go on an expedition.

2. To become extinct, as light or life; to expire. A candle goes out; fire goes out.

And life itself goes out at thy displeasure.

3. To become public. This story goes out to the world.

To go over, to read; to peruse; to study.

1. To examine; to view or review; as, to go over an account.

If we go over the laws of christianity--

2. To think over; to proceed or pass in mental operation.

3. To change sides; to pass from one party to another.

4. To revolt.

5. To pass from one side to the other, as of a river.

To go through, to pass in a substance; as, to go through water.

1. To execute; to accomplish; to perform thoroughly; to finish; as, to go through an undertaking.

2. To suffer; to bear; to undergo; to sustain to the end; as, to go through a long sickness; to go through an operation.

To go through with, to execute effectually.

To go under, to be talked of or known, as by a title or name; as, to go under the name of reformers.go up, to ascend; to rise.

To go upon, to proceed as on a foundation; to take as a principle supposed or settled; as, to go upon a supposition.

To go with, to accompany; to pass with others.

1. To side with; to be in party or design with.

To go ill with, to have ill fortune; not to prosper.

To go well with, to have good fortune; to prosper.

To go without, to be or remain destitute.

GO to, come, move, begin; a phrase of exhortation; also a phrase of scornful exhortation.

GO'-BETWEEN, noun [go and between.] An interposer; one who transacts business between parties.

GO'-BY, [go and by.] Evasion; escape by artifice.

1. A passing without notice; a thrusting away; a shifting off.

GO'-CART, noun [go and cart.] A machine with wheels, in which children learn to walk without danger of falling.