go to town
English edit
Etymology edit
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation edit
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Verb edit
go to town (third-person singular simple present goes to town, present participle going to town, simple past went to town, past participle gone to town)
- (idiomatic) To proceed enthusiastically, vigorously, or expertly.
- She really went to town with the party preparations.
- 2014 November 12, Calum MacLeod, “As with 2008 Olympics, China spends big to look good”, in USA Today[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 November 2014[2]:
- The greatest impact, good and bad, fell on the city's northeast suburbs, 60-plus minutes from the downtown Huairou district, a key APEC venue. Obama and other VIPs spent just seven hours there Tuesday, but Huairou went to town as perhaps only China can. The district spent about $4.9 billion preparing for APEC, according to state media including the Beijing Youth Daily and China Daily newspapers.
- 2018 November, N. K. Jemisin, How Long 'til Black Future Month?[4], Hachette, →ISBN:
- The news channels had been the first to figure out that particular wrinkle, but the religions really went to town with it.
- 2022 May 29, Tom Lamont, quoting Jim Howick, “‘We were always trying to push boundaries’: Jim Howick on breaking taboos, coping with life and the joy of dogs”, in The Observer[5], →ISSN:
- Oh, I went to town in the last lockdown, spent a lot of money on the paints, the brushes, the figurines for a game called Hero Quest.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, to, town.
- Pa went to town to buy a new plough.
Synonyms edit
See also edit
Further reading edit
- Jonathon Green (2024), “go to town v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
- Eric Partridge (2005), “go to town”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 2 (J–Z), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1995.