obsoleteTo move, either physically or in an abstract sense:

• ‘As for that,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘I may chose othir to ryde othir to go.’
• Master Piercie our new President, was so sicke hee could neither goe nor stand.

To work or function (properly); to move or perform (as required).

• The engine just won't go anymore.
• Don't put your hand inside while the motor's going!

To start; to begin (an action or process).

• You've got thirty seconds to solve the anagram, starting now. Go!
• At leaſt, I'm ſure I can fiſh it out of her. She's the very Sluce to her Lady's Secrets;—'Tis but ſetting her Mill agoing, and I can drein her of 'em all.

To take a turn, especially in a game.

• It’s your turn; go.
• I've got all vowels. I don't think I can go.

To attend.

• I go to school at the schoolhouse.
• She went to Yale.

To proceed:

• That went well.
• "How are things going?" "Not bad, thanks."

To proceed:

• Why'd you have to go and do that?
• Why'd you have to go do that?

To extend along.

• The fence goes the length of the boundary.
• A shady promenade went the length of the street and the entrance to the hotel was a few steps back in the darkness, away from the glaring sunshine.

To extend (from one point in time or space to another).

• This property goes all the way to the state line.
• The working week goes from Monday to Friday.

To lead (to a place); to give access (to).

• Does this road go to Fort Smith?
• “Where does this door go?” Bev asked as she pointed to a door painted a darker green than the powder green color of the carpet. Janet answered. “That door goes to the back yard.”

To become, move to or come to (a state, position, situation)

• Near-synonyms: become, get, turn, come, fall, grow, wax
• You'll go blind.

To become, move to or come to (a state, position, situation)

• If we can win on Saturday, we'll go top of the league.
• They went level with their rivals.

To become, move to or come to (a state, position, situation)

• They went into debt.
• She goes to sleep around 10 o'clock.

To assume the obligation or function of; to be, to serve as.

• There is scarcely a business man who is not occasionally asked to go bail for somebody.
• Most welfare workers are not allowed to go surety for clients.

To continuously or habitually be in a state.

• I don't want my children to go hungry.
• We went barefoot in the summer.

To turn out, to result; to come to (a certain result).

• The decision went the way we expected.
• When Wharton had to relinquish his seat in Buckinghamshire on his elevation to the peerage in 1696, he was unable to replace himself with a suitable man, and the by-election went in favour of a local Tory, Lord Cheyne.

To tend (toward a result).

• Well, that goes to show you.
• These experiences go to make us stronger.

To contribute to a (specified) end product or result.

• qualities that go to make a lady / lip-reader / sharpshooter
• What can we know of any substance or existence, but as made up of all the qualities that go to its composition: extension, solidity, form, colour; take these away, and you know nothing.

To pass, to be used up:

• The time went slowly.
• But the days went and went, and she never came; and then I thought I would come here where you were.

To pass, to be used up:

• After three days, my headache finally went.

To pass, to be used up:

• His money went on drink.
• All I have is a sleeping bag right now. All my money goes to keep up the cars.

To die.

• I want to go in my sleep.
• By Saint George, he's gone! / That spear wound hath our master sped.

ball-gamescricketgamesTo be lost or out:

• The third wicket went just before lunch.

ball-gamescricketgamesTo be lost or out:

• Smith bowls ... Jones hits it straight up in the air ... and ... caught! Jones has gone!

To break down or apart:

• Careful! It looks as if that ceiling could go at any moment!
• 'Back!' cried Carrados. 'The cliff is going!' The cliff, as Mr Lidmarsh had remarked, had been going for centuries—going by inches, by feet, or by yards. […] Now the cliff face—all the ground beyond the fissure—began to fall rigidly away […]

To break down or apart:

• My mind is going.
• She's 83; her eyesight is starting to go.

To be sold.

• The car went for five thousand dollars.
• The store is closing down so everything must go.

To be discarded or disposed of.

• This chair has got to go.
• All this old rubbish can go.

To be given, especially to be assigned or allotted.

• The property shall go to my wife.
• The award went to Steven Spielberg.

To survive or get by; to last or persist for a stated length of time.

• How long can you go without water?
• We've gone without your help for a while now.

hobbieslifestylesportsTo have a certain record.

• They've gone one for three in this series.
• The team is going five in a row.

To be authoritative, accepted, or valid:

• Whatever the boss says goes, do you understand?

To be authoritative, accepted, or valid:

• Anything goes around here.
• The money which remains should go according to its true value.

To be authoritative, accepted, or valid:

• The baked beans can go on this shelf, and the same goes for all these other tins.
• [To job interviews, wear] muted colors. No pink or paisley (that goes for you too, guys!) […]

To say (something), to make a sound:

• I go, "As if!" And she was all like, "Whatever!"
• As soon as I did it, I went "that was stupid."

To say (something), to make a sound:

• Cats go "meow". Motorcycles go "vroom".

To say (something), to make a sound:

• I woke up just before the clock went.
• At 4pm, the phone went. It was The Sun: 'We hear your daughter's been expelled for cheating at her school exams[…]' / / She'd made a remark to a friend at the end of the German exam and had been pulled up for talking. / / As they left the exam room, she muttered that the teacher was a 'twat'. He heard and flipped—a pretty stupid thing to do, knowing the kids were tired and tense after exams. Instead of dropping it, the teacher complained to the Head and Deb was carpeted.

To be expressed or composed (a certain way).

• The tune goes like this.
• As the story goes, he got the idea for the song while sitting in traffic.

To resort (to).

• The nylon gears kept breaking, so we went to stainless steel.

To apply or subject oneself to:

• I'm going to join a sports team.
• I wish you'd go and get a job.

To apply or subject oneself to:

• You didn't have to go to such trouble.
• I never thought he'd go so far as to call you.

To apply or subject oneself to:

• I've gone over this a hundred times.
• Let's not go into that right now.

To fit (in a place, or together with something):

• Do you think the sofa will go through the door?
• The belt just barely went around his waist.

To fit (in a place, or together with something):

• This shade of red doesn't go with the drapes.
• White wine goes better with fish than red wine.

To fit (in a place, or together with something):

• My shirts go on this side of the wardrobe.
• This piece of the jigsaw goes on the other side.

ball-gamesgameshobbiesTo fit (in a place, or together with something):

• He'd like to pot the pink, but I don't think it will go. The green's in the way.

To date.

• How long have they been going together?
• He's been going with her for two weeks.

To (begin to) date or have sex with (a particular race).

• You can date black, you can do white, on a slow night maybe even go for an Asian boy, but most likely you'll go Latino unless the aforementioned guys speak a little Spanish […]
• I felt that was an insult to John Lennon, but I married her anyway. Thinking back, I should have gone Asian.

To attack:

• I went at him with a knife.
• You wanna go, little man?

obsoleteslangTo attack:

• You've shown me his weak points, and I'll go him whether you stick by me or not.

slangTo attack:

• As big as me. Strong, too. I was itching to go him, And he had clouted Ernie.
• Then I′m sure I heard him mutter ‘Why don′t you get fucked,’ under his breath. It was at that moment that I became a true professional. Instead of going him, I announced the next song.

Used to express how some category of things generally is, as a reference for, contrast to, or comparison with, a particular example.

• My cat Fluffy is very timid, as cats go.
• As far as burgers go, this is one of the best.

To take (a particular part or share); to participate in to the extent of.

• Let's go halves on this.
• They were to go equal shares in the booty.

To yield or weigh.

• Those babies go five tons apiece.
• This'll go three tons to the acre, or I'll eat my shirt.

To offer, bid or bet an amount; to pay; to sell for.

• That's as high as I can go.
• We could go two fifty.

To enjoy. (Compare go for.)

• I could go a beer right about now.
• 'But I bet you could go a cup of tea? I know I could. Always ready for char.' He looked over my shoulder towards Albert Hicks, who was standing in the doorway. 'Albert, could you rustle up a pot of our best Darjeeling?[…]'

To go to the toilet; to urinate or defecate.

• I really need to go.
• Have you managed to go today, Mrs. Miggins?

Expressing encouragement or approval.

• Go, girl! You can do it!

To fight, usually with the fists.

• You said WHAT about my mom? Do you want to go, bro?

To pass (a specified time) in gestation; to be pregnant.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:go.

datedThe fashion or mode.

• 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.

datedNoisy merriment.

• 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,' […]

archaicslangA glass of spirits; a quantity of spirits.

• 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,

datedA portion

• Albert's uncle had had a jolly good breakfast—fish and eggs and bacon and three goes of marmalade.

Power of going or doing; energy; vitality; perseverance.

• There is no go in him.

The situation where a player cannot play a card which will not carry the aggregate count above thirty-one.

obsoleteslangA dandy; a fashionable person.

• 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.