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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








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"Go about" Quotes from Famous Books



... classes of reeds according to their diameter: the small, the medium-sized and the large. I call small those whose narrow width just allows the Osmia to go about her household duties without discomfort. She must be able to turn where she stands in order to brush her abdomen and rub off its load of pollen, after disgorging the honey in the centre of the heap of flour already collected. If the width of the tube does not admit of this ...
— Bramble-bees and Others • J. Henri Fabre

... shall not be able to go about in square for them to get all round and blaze away into the brown of us." And there were some of higher rank who began ...
— For Fortune and Glory - A Story of the Soudan War • Lewis Hough

... By some more strong in mischiefs than myself: Must I for that be made a common sink For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues, To fall and run into? some call me witch; And, being ignorant of myself, they go About to teach me how to be one; urging That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so) Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn, Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse; This ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume XII. F, No. 325, August 2, 1828. • Various

... some coward who was afraid to let himself be known, was it? And Bud acted upon the advice that letter contained and grabbed the boys, did he? How did he go about it?" inquired Dixon; and his three companions, who knew how quick he was to get angry, wondered that he could speak so quietly and without ...
— True To His Colors • Harry Castlemon

... cab and go about, like Boots and Brewer, you know, for the Veneerings." She said this as if she knew about the humour rather than felt it. "We are placing all our hopes of bringing round the Old ...
— Annie Kilburn - A Novel • W. D. Howells


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