1 PHRASAL VERB If you go along with a rule, decision, or policy, you accept it and obey it. □ [V P P n] Whatever the majority decided I was prepared to go along with.
2 PHRASAL VERB If you go along with a person or an idea, you agree with them. □ [V P P n] 'I don't think a government has properly done it for years.'—'I'd go along with that.'
▸ go around in BRIT, also use go round 1 PHRASAL VERB If you go around to someone's house, you go to visit them at their house. □ [V P + to ] I asked them to go around to the house to see if they were there. □ [V P to-inf] Mike went round to see them.
2 PHRASAL VERB If you go around in a particular way, you behave or dress in that way, often as part of your normal life. □ [V P prep] I had got in the habit of going around with bare feet. □ [V P v-ing] If they went around complaining publicly, they might not find it so easy to get another job. [Also V P adj]
3 PHRASAL VERB If a piece of news or a joke is going around , it is being told by many people in the same period of time. □ [V P ] There's a nasty sort of rumour going around about it.
4 PHRASAL VERB If there is enough of something to go around , there is enough of it to be shared among a group of people, or to do all the things for which it is needed. □ [V P ] Eventually we will not have enough water to go around.
▸ go away
1 PHRASAL VERB If you go away , you leave a place or a person's company. □ [V P ] I think we need to go away and think about this.
2 PHRASAL VERB If you go away , you leave a place and spend a period of time somewhere else, especially as a holiday. □ [V P ] Why don't you and I go away this weekend?
▸ go back
1 PHRASAL VERB If something goes back to a particular time in the past, it was made or started at that time. □ [V P + to ] The feud with the Catholics goes back to the 11th century. □ [V P n] Our association with him goes back four years.
2 PHRASAL VERB If someone goes back to a time in the past, they begin to discuss or consider events that happened at that time. □ [V P + to ] If you go back to 1960, you'll find that very few jobs were being created. [Also V P n]
▸ go back on PHRASAL VERB If you go back on a promise or agreement, you do not do what you promised or agreed to do. □ [V P P n] The budget crisis has forced the President to go back on his word.
▸ go back to
1 PHRASAL VERB If you go back to a task or activity, you start doing it again after you have stopped doing it for a period of time. □ [V P P n/v-ing] I now look forward to going back to work as soon as possible. □ [V P P n/v-ing] Amy went back to studying.
2 PHRASAL VERB If you go back to a particular point in a lecture, discussion, or book, you start to discuss it. □ [V P P n] Let me just go back to the point I was making.
▸ go before
1 PHRASAL VERB Something that has gone before has happened or been discussed at an earlier time. □ [V P ] This is a rejection of most of what has gone before.
2 PHRASAL VERB To go before a judge, tribunal, or court of law means to be present there as part of an official or legal process. □ [V P n] The case went before the city's judge for the first time yesterday.
▸ go by
1 PHRASAL VERB If you say that time goes by , you mean that it passes. □ [V P ] My grandmother was becoming more and more sad and frail as the years went by.
2 PHRASAL VERB If you go by something, you use it as a basis for a judgment or action. □ [V P n] If they prove that I was wrong, then I'll go by what they say.
▸ go down
1 PHRASAL VERB If a price, level, or amount goes down , it becomes lower or less than it was. □ [V P ] Income from sales tax went down. □ [V P amount] Crime has gone down 70 percent. □ [V P + from/to/by ] Average life expectancy went down from about 70 to 67.
2 PHRASAL VERB If you go down on your knees or on all fours, you lower your body until it is supported by your knees, or by your hands and knees. □ [V P + on ] I went down on my knees and prayed for guidance.
3 PHRASAL VERB In sport, if a person or team goes down , they are defeated in a match or contest. □ [V P num] They went down 2-1 to Australia. [Also V P ]
4 PHRASAL VERB If you say that a remark, idea, or type of behaviour goes down in a particular way, you mean that it gets a particular kind of reaction from a person or group of people. □ [V P adv] Solicitors advised their clients that a tidy look went down well with the magistrates.
5 PHRASAL VERB When the sun goes down , it goes below the horizon. □ [V P ] …the glow left in the sky after the sun has gone down.
6 PHRASAL VERB If a ship goes down , it sinks. If a plane goes down , it crashes out of the sky. □ [V P ] Their aircraft went down during a training exercise.
7 PHRASAL VERB If a computer goes down , it stops functioning temporarily. □ [V P ] The main computers went down for 30 minutes.
8 PHRASAL VERB To go down means to happen. [INFORMAL ] □ [V P ] 'What's going down? Any ideas?'
▸ go down as PHRASAL VERB If you say that an event or action will go down as a particular thing, you mean that it will be regarded, remembered, or recorded as that thing. □ [V P P n] It will go down as one of the highlights of my career.
▸ go down with PHRASAL VERB If you go down with an illness or a disease, you catch it. [INFORMAL ] □ [V P P n] Three members of the band went down with flu.