Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Go about   /goʊ əbˈaʊt/   Listen
verb
Go  v. i.  (past went; past part. gone; pres. part. going)  
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. Note: In old writers go is much used as opposed to run, or ride. "Whereso I go or ride." "You know that love Will creep in service where it can not go." "Thou must run to him; for thou hast staid so long that going will scarce serve the turn." "He fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and his knees." Note: 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." "(The money) should go according to its true value."
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?" "I think, as the world goes, he was a good sort of man enough." "Whether the cause goes for me or against me, you must pay me the reward."
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." "To master the foul flend there goeth some complement knowledge of theology."
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." Note: 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."
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."
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."
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."
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."
12.
To have recourse; to resort; as, to go to law. Note: 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." "They never go about... to hide or palliate their vices."
(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."
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."
(b)
To go from what is right; to err.
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."
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."
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.
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."
To go in to or To go in unto.
(a)
To enter the presence of.
(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."
(b)
To cease; to intermit; as, this sickness went off.
(c)
To die.
(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."
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."
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." "What went ye out for to see?"
(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."
To go over.
(a)
To traverse; to cross, as a river, boundary, etc.; to change sides. "I must not go over Jordan." "Let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan." "Ishmael... departed to go over to the Ammonites."
(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."
(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 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.



adverb
About  adv.  
1.
On all sides; around. "'Tis time to look about."
2.
In circuit; circularly; by a circuitous way; around the outside; as, a mile about, and a third of a mile across.
3.
Here and there; around; in one place and another. "Wandering about from house to house."
4.
Nearly; approximately; with close correspondence, in quality, manner, degree, etc.; as, about as cold; about as high; also of quantity, number, time. "There fell... about three thousand men."
5.
To a reserved position; half round; in the opposite direction; on the opposite tack; as, to face about; to turn one's self about.
To bring about, to cause to take place; to accomplish.
To come about, to occur; to take place. See under Come.
To go about, To set about, to undertake; to arrange; to prepare. "Shall we set about some revels?"
Round about, in every direction around.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Go about" Quotes from Famous Books



... out, Tom; you had better go round and see some of your school-fellows. You look fagged and worn out. You cannot help me here, and I shall go about my work more cheerfully if I know that you are ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... associate and talk freely together in public among other people, but no young man would go about alone with a girl, unless he was misconducting himself with her, or wished ...
— The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea • Robert W. Williamson

... separately or mutually. From hence Changes are made, which is only a Changing place of one Note with another, so variously, as Musick may be heard a thousand ways of Harmony; which being so obvious to common Observation, I shall not go about to demonstrate; for that if two may be varied two ways, surely by the Rule of Multiplication, a Man may easily learn how many times 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 12 Bells Notes may be varied; which ...
— The School of Recreation (1696 edition) • Robert Howlett

... a fine fellow he is. This engine has eight wheels; two immense "driving wheels" eight feet high, more than twenty-four feet round, so each time that wheel revolves we travel (say) twenty-five feet, and when we are in full swing we shall go about thirty yards a second! The 11.45 down train from Paddington, and the corresponding up train from Exeter, are the two "Flying Dutchmen." There are two other trains which run equally fast, up and down in the afternoon. These are the "Zulu" trains, ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... my masters, if you have ridden only trained running horses or light hunters. They go about the business of a race with eagerness enough, but still as a servant goes about his task. Imagine, if you please, how a horse would run with you in the night if he was seventeen hands high ...
— Dwellers in the Hills • Melville Davisson Post


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com