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.