1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 19. Some one
had certainly gone down.
To go due north, verb. phr. (obsolete).—To go bankrupt. [That is, to go
to White-cross Street Prison, once situate in north London]. See
Quisby.
To go on the dub, verb. phr. (old).—To go house-breaking; to pick
locks. See Dub.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew. Going upon the dub, c.
Breaking a House with picklocks.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
To go to the dogs, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To go to ruin. [Cf., the
Dutch proverb ‘Toe goê, toe de dogs’ = money gone, credit gone too.]
See Demnition bow-wows.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. i. The service, he said, would
go to the dogs, and might do for anything he cared and he did not
mind how soon.
1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, 1, 179. ‘Got a second!—bah! The
University is going to the ‘——’ Deuce!’ suggested Lord Charles, who
was afraid of something worse. ‘Dogs, Sir, dogs!’
c. 1879. Broadside Ballad, ‘Old Clo’.’ My line of business is
played out, it’s going to the dogs.
To go off on the ear, verb. phr. (American).—To get angry; to fly into
a tantrum. See Nab the rust.
To go for, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To attempt; to tackle; to
resolve upon; to make for (q.v.).
1871. John Hay, Jim Bludso. He see’d his duty, a dead-sure
thing—And he went for it thar and then.
1890. Athenæum, 22 Mar., p. 366, c. 1. The authors have spared
neither their creatures nor the reader one iota; whenever an
unpleasant effect was obtainable, they straightway seem to have
gone for it with unflinching zest.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 221. Some men had gone for half a
dozen, others for two or three, and very few for a single.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 118. We are strong,
my boy, strong now, and are going in for the slugging of books
also, as well as the immorality of trade.
2. (colloquial).—To attack with violence and directness, whether
manually or with the tongue.
1871. Morning Advertiser, 2 Feb., ‘A curtain lecture.’ On ...
arrival home the derelict husband is to be gone for in the most
approved style of the late lamented Mrs. Caudle.
1883. James Payn, Thicker than Water, ch. xxxvii. There were
occasions ... when Charley could hardly help going for the legs of
that lofty philosopher, for higher he could not hit him.
1889. Polytechnic Magazine, 24 Oct., p. 261. He went for the jam
tarts unmercifully.
1889. Star, 24 Aug., p. 4, c. 2. As the enlightened tailor still
declined to pay the blackmail one of the anti-machinists went for
him with a chopper.
1892. Tit Bits, 19 Mar., p. 424, c. 1. So it comes to much the same
thing, with the exception that you cannot indulge in the sad
delight of going for Master Bertie sometimes as you might do were
he a member of your own household.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 123. “Well mate, go
for him, and we’ll keep the cops off till you settle his hash.”