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."
3. (colloquial).—To support; to favour; to vote for.
4. (theatrical).—To criticise; specifically, to run down. [An extension of sense 2.] For synonyms, see Run down.
To go in for (or at), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To enter for; to apply oneself to (e.g., to go in for honours). Also to devote oneself to (e.g., to pay court); to take up (as a pastime, pursuit, hobby, or principle). Closely allied to go for.
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 18 (ed. 1857). This advice was very like that which bystanders invariably give to the smallest boy in a street fight; namely, 'Go in, and win': an admirable thing to recommend, if you only know how to do it.
1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xviii., p. 162. Sometimes I go in at the butcher madly, and cut my knuckles open against his face.
1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, iii., 3. Go in for money-Money's the article.
1869. Whyte Melville, M. or N, p. 31. Long before he had reached his uncle's house, he had made up his mind to go in, as he called it, for Miss Bruce, morally confident of winning, yet troubled with certain chilling misgivings, as fearing that this time he had really fallen in love.
1870. Agricultural Jour., Feb. Men who go in for bathing, running, etc.
1872. Besant and Rice, My Little Girl (in Once a Week, 14 Dec., p. 508). He had, after a laborious and meritorious career at Aberdeen, gone in for Scotch mission work in Constantinople.
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. xlv. His cheeks are flushed; he is laughing loudly, and going in heavily for the champagne.
