Word.ws English Dictionary

go amiss

go amiss verb: to be unhelpful or inappropriate: usually used in the negative, as "not go amiss", to express that something would be welcome or useful.

Verb

go amiss (third-person singular simple present goes amiss, present participle going amiss, simple past went amiss, past participle gone amiss)

  1. To be unhelpful or inappropriate: usually used in the negative, as "not go amiss", to express that something would be welcome or useful.
    • A nice cup of tea wouldn't go amiss.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, amiss.
    • We must find out what went amiss in order to avoid such mishaps in the future.

Forms of go amiss

third-person singular presentgoes amiss
present participlegoing amiss
pastwent amiss
past participlegone amiss

Questions about go amiss

What does go amiss mean?
Go amiss means to be unhelpful or inappropriate: usually used in the negative, as "not go amiss", to express that something would be welcome or useful.
What part of speech is go amiss?
Go amiss is a verb.
What is the past tense of go amiss?
The past tense of go amiss is went amiss.

Words near go amiss in the dictionary

  1. go along to get along
  2. go along way
  3. go along with
  4. go along with the gag
  5. go along with you
  6. go amiss
  7. go and boil your head
  8. go and eat coke
  9. go and play in the traffic
  10. go and play in traffic
  11. go ape

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go amiss (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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