go
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English gon, goon, from Old English gān (“to go”), from Proto-West Germanic *gān, from Proto-Germanic *gāną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”).
The inherited past tense form yode (compare Old English ēode) was replaced through suppletion in the 15th century by went, from Old English wendan (“to go, depart, wend”).
cognates and related terms
Cognate with Scots gae, gan, gang, ging, gyang (“to go”), Yola go, goe, goeth, gow (“to go”), West Frisian gean (“to go”), Alemannic German gaa, go (“to go, walk, step”), Bavarian geh (“to go”), Cimbrian ghéenan, gian (“to go”), Dutch gaan (“to go”), Dutch Low Saxon gan, gaon (“to go”), German gehen (“to go”), German Low German gahn (“to go”), Limburgish gaon, goëne (“to go”), Luxembourgish goen (“to go”), Vilamovian gejn, gyjn (“to go”), Yiddish גיין (geyn, “to go, walk”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish gå (“to go, walk”), Crimean Gothic geen (“to go”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌽 (gaggan, “to go”). Compare also Albanian ngah (“to run, drive, go”), Ancient Greek κιχάνω (kikhánō, “to meet with, arrive at”), Avestan 𐬰𐬀𐬰𐬁𐬨𐬌 (zazāmi), Sanskrit जहाति (jáhāti, “to shun, avoid, lay aside”).
Inflected forms:
form: goes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: gan
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Northumbria
form: gan
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Northumbria
Senses:
gloss: The act of going.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncommon
uncountable
examples: The Apostles were to be the first of a line. They would multiply successors, and the successors would die and their successors after them, but the line would never fail; and the come and go of men would not matter, since it is the one Christ operating through all of them.
They talk easily together and they hear the come and go of the breeze in the soon to be turning burnt leaves of the high trees.
gloss: A turn at something, or in something (e.g. a game).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: You’ve been on that pinball machine long enough—now let your brother have a go.
It’s your go.
gloss: An attempt, a try.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: I’ll give it a go.
You have to stay and we will have a go at winning the championship next season."
gloss: A period of activity.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: ate it all in one go
This could mean that the artist traced the illustration in two goes, as it were, or that the Utrecht Psalter slipped while he was tracing, but I do not think that the relative proportions are consistent enough to demonstrate this.
gloss: A time; an experience.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Even if she was bigger and more mature, she would have a tough go of it. We have read a lot on this diagnosis and have known from the beginning what she has been up against.” “It's true about this being a tough go,” I said. “Listen, I'm very sorry, but I'm on call here tomorrow and I will[…]"
"She's had a rough go of things and no one wants to see her hurt.” Jason stared at Kate's slender frame, backlit by a spear of sunlight breaking through the cloud cover. "Then that makes the entire town plus one."
With public opinion turned more empathetic toward AF with the bombing of their building, Sarah and the Justice Department would have a tough go of it. But if this really was true [that they were behind the bombing themselves], and the media got ahold of it. . .
gloss: A circumstance or occurrence; an incident, often unexpected.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
slang
uncountable
examples: 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, in 1868, The Works of Charles Dickens, Volume 2: Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, American Notes, page 306,
“Well, this is a pretty go, is this here! An uncommon pretty go!
“Ain't this a rum go? This is a queer sort of dodge for lighting the streets.”
The images of Mrs. Squeers, my daughter, and my son Wackford, all short of vittles, is perpetually before me; every other consideration melts away and vanishes, in front of these; the only number in all arithmetic that I know of, as a husband and a father, is number one, under this here most fatal go!
"Supposing now that some of them were to slip into the boat at night and cut the cable, make off with her? That would be a pretty go, that would."
“It’s a rum go and no mistake.”
gloss: An approval or permission to do something, or that which has been approved.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: We will begin as soon as the boss says it's a go.
"Well, Tom, is it a go? You can trust me, for you'll have the thousand in your pocket before you start.[…]"
And as soon as we gave them the go to continue, we lost communication.
gloss: An act; the working or operation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 1598, John Marston, Pigmalion, The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image and Certaine Satyres, 1856, J. O. Halliwell (editor), The Works of John Marston: Reprinted from the Original Editions, Volume 3, page 211,
Let this suffice, that that same happy night,
So gracious were the goes of marriage […]
gloss: The fashion or mode.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
uncountable
examples: quite the go
We are blowing each other out of the market with cheapness; but it is all the go, so we must not be behind the age.
gloss: Noisy merriment.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
uncountable
examples: a high go
Gemmen (says he), you all well know
 The joy there is whene'er we meet;
 It's what I call the primest go,
 And rightly named, 'tis—'quite a treat,' […]
gloss: A glass of spirits; a quantity of spirits.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
slang
uncountable
examples: Jack Randall then impatient rose, / And said, ‘Tom's speech were just as fine / If he would call that first of goes [i.e. gin] / By that genteeler name—white wine.'
When the cloth was removed, Mr. Thomas Potter ordered the waiter to bring in two goes of his best Scotch whiskey, with warm water and sugar, and a couple of his "very mildest" Havannas,
“Then, if you value it so highly,” I said, “you can hardly object to stand half a go of brandy for its recovery.”
gloss: A portion
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
uncountable
examples: Albert's uncle had had a jolly good breakfast—fish and eggs and bacon and three goes of marmalade.
gloss: Power of going or doing; energy; vitality; perseverance.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: There is no go in him.
gloss: The situation where a player cannot play a card which will not carry the aggregate count above thirty-one.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A dandy; a fashionable person.
pos: noun
tags: British
countable
obsolete
slang
uncountable
examples: That TOM, who was the GO among the GOES, in the very centre of fashion in London, should have to encounter the vulgar stare of this village; or, that the dairy-maid should leave off skimming her cream to take a peep at our hero, as he mounted his courser, is not at all surprising: and TOM only smiled at this provincial sort of rudeness.
He's a go among the goes, is Mr. Kestrel. He's only got to sport a new kind of topper, or tie his crumpler a new way, and every gentry-cove in town does just the same.
See Thesaurus:dandy
gloss: Working correctly and ready to commence operation; approved and able to be put into action.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
postpositional
examples: John Glenn reports all systems are go.
"Life support system is go," said the earphone.
“Green One has four starts and is go.”
“Weapons ready?” Sam and I pull our loaded BB guns out of the bag and slot them into place in the longholsters on our backs.“ Weapons are go,” Sam replied.
Derived words: give it a go
have a go
make a go of it
on the go
rum go
Translations: