Dictionary

go west en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

In reference to death, originally Scottish, reaching broader usage among the soldiers of World War I. In reference to Manifest Destiny in the United States, a paraphrase of Horace Greeley's 25 Aug. 1838 advice in The New Yorker that young men should "Go to the West" if free to do so.

Meanings

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, west.
   • Go west until you hit the ocean, then turn left.
2. (of the sun) Synonym of set: to move toward the western horizon, to go down.
   • I see the rocks set in the sky, and maybe the sun going west, and the trees getting dark. 2006, W.H. Henderson, Augusta Locke, page 263:
   • For hit was nyght, the sonne goth west c. 1400, The Laud Troy Book, l. 13365:
3. (dated, figuratively) Synonym of die.
   • Jack has ‘gone west’. He died peacefully in the loving arms of his son. 2008 June 17, Anchorage Daily News, p. A9
   • The Irish, and the Scottish Highlanders, always describe persons lately dead as having gone west. 1833 Oct., Johnstone's Edinburgh Magazine, p. 89
   • Women and mony wilsome wy, a. 1532, Glassinberry, poem preserved in Gray's Manuscipt
   • You'd think, to hear some people talk, That lads go West with sobs and curses, And sullen faces white as chalk... But they've been taught the way to do it... With due regard for decent taste. 1918, Siegfried Sassoon, How to Die", Counter-Attack and Other Poems
   • In this war we're always moving, Moving on; When we make a friend another friend has gone... When the bravest and the best Of the boys you know "go west", Then you're choking down your tears and Moving on. 1918, Banjo Paterson, Moving On:
   • Does any one know the origin or meaning of the soldiers' curious phrase for death, ‘Going West’? 1914 Dec. 31, The Times, p. 4
   • Och, your ma's gone west, dearie. You'll hear her voice no more.
4. (dated, figuratively) To be lost, destroyed, or otherwise ruined.
   • Socialism? Ha! ha! ha! Where’s the money to come from? Ha! ha! ha! The lords of property were firm in their seats, and they knew it. But after the French collapse there came something that could not be laughed away, something that neither cheque-books nor policemen were any use against—the bombing. Zweee—BOOM! What’s that? Oh, only a bomb on the Stock Exchange. Zweee—BOOM! Another acre of somebody’s valuable slum-property gone west. 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. II:
   • I had a dinky [handkerchief], but it went west earlier this evening. Soaked, dear. 1976, Rosamond Lehmann, Sea-Grape Tree, page 42:
   • Their parcels... went persistently ‘west’. 1919 Sept., Blackwood's Magazine, p. 368
   • The glare of a burning house shone red in the sky over the roof tops. 'Somebody's 'appy 'ome gone west', remarked one man. 1916, Boyd Cable, Action Front, page 167:
5. (US) To move to the American West, particularly (historical) during the 19th century era.
   • Go West, young man! Buy a good, stout farming outfit... and then go out to the far West upon Government-land. 1870 Aug. 20, O.C. Kerr, Punchinello, p. 323
   • It reminds me of the advice that Mr. Secretary Corwin gave to a young man that was applying for a clerkship. He said, ‘Young man, go West’. 1856 May, Wisconsin Farmer, p. 209
   • Go west, young man. But stop before you get to California. 1992 Dec. 1, San Diego Union-Tribune, p. E1
   • Go west, young man!

Forms

Relateds

out west · westward · West · Old West

Synonyms

die · set

wikipedia: Horace Greeley · wikipedia: The New Yorker