Word.ws English Dictionary

fair go

fair go interjection: used in protest to implore or demand that someone act with more fairness or reason, or desist in something considered outrageous.

Interjection

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) Used in protest to implore or demand that someone act with more fairness or reason, or desist in something considered outrageous.
    • Fair go mum! Let me go to the party tonight!
    • ‘Fair go, mate,’ protested Al, as the man dropped to his knees and attempted to pull the sturdy army-issue boots from the private′s feet.
      George, catching on, directed Al′s gaze to a row of neatly stacked shoes and Aloysius begrudgingly relented.2010, Colin McLaren, Sunflower: A Tale of Love, War and Intrigue, page 62

Noun

fair go (plural fair gos)

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) A reasonable or equitable opportunity to attempt something.
    • He said he wanted a fair go to apply for the scholarship.
    • I have never minded a licking and have never asked for anything more than a fighting chance. But to have to give away five stone in weight and six inches in height was not my idea of a fair go.1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 85

Examples of fair go in a sentence

  • But for this government to load up funding to the wealthiest schools in this country is anathema to the great Aussie notion of a fair go for all.1944, Australian Parliament, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Representatives, volume 266, page 32254:
  • ‘We have heard about a fair go for Labor,’ Fraser told the crowd in his peroration. ‘A fair go for the most hopeless Government in our history?1976, Laurie Oakes, Crash Through or Crash: The Unmaking of a Prime Minister, page 241:
  • The traditional ethic of the fair go was resurrected, the light on the hill reignited, and the government promised that those currently unemployed would not be left to stagnate.2002, Francis Gordon Clarke, The History of Australia, page 186:

Synonyms of fair go

Forms of fair go

pluralfair gos

Questions about fair go

What does fair go mean?
Fair go means used in protest to implore or demand that someone act with more fairness or reason, or desist in something considered outrageous.
How do you use fair go in a sentence?
But for this government to load up funding to the wealthiest schools in this country is anathema to the great Aussie notion of a fair go for all.
What part of speech is fair go?
Fair go can be an interjection or a noun.

Words near fair go in the dictionary

  1. fair dos
  2. fair enough
  3. fair exchange is no robbery
  4. fair fucks
  5. fair game
  6. fair go
  7. fair gos
  8. Fair Haven
  9. Fair Head
  10. fair is fair
  11. Fair Isle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fair go (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 fair go.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fair go.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fair_go. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.