Word.ws English Dictionary

go for the gloves

go for the gloves verb: to bet against a racehorse on the chance of its losing, without having the wherewithal to pay if it wins.

Verb

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

  1. To bet against a racehorse on the chance of its losing, without having the wherewithal to pay if it wins.

Forms of go for the gloves

third-person singular presentgoes for the gloves
present participlegoing for the gloves
pastwent for the gloves
past participlegone for the gloves

Origin of go for the gloves

Perhaps from the old custom of ladies betting their gloves, expecting to be paid if they won but not to pay if they lost.

Questions about go for the gloves

What does go for the gloves mean?
Go for the gloves means to bet against a racehorse on the chance of its losing, without having the wherewithal to pay if it wins.
What part of speech is go for the gloves?
Go for the gloves is a verb.
What is the past tense of go for the gloves?
The past tense of go for the gloves is went for the gloves.

Words near go for the gloves in the dictionary

  1. go for an old song
  2. go for broke
  3. go for gold
  4. go for it
  5. go for nothing
  6. go for the gloves
  7. go for the gold
  8. go for the gold ring
  9. go for the jugular
  10. go for the jugular vein
  11. go for the kill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go for the gloves (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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Cite this entry: “go for the gloves.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_for_the_gloves. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.