go ham
/ɡoʊ ˈhæm/
go ham verb: to enter an enraged and uncontrollable state; to go berserk.
Verb (1)
go ham (third-person singular simple present goes ham, present participle going ham, simple past went ham, past participle gone ham)
- To enter an enraged and uncontrollable state; to go berserk.
- If you use her fabric scissors, she's going to go ham on you.
- Go ham on em Soulja, go ham on 'em2007, “Go Ham on 'Em” (0:12 from the start)performed by Soulja Boy
- Synonyms:
- go crazy, go wild, flip one's wig, flip out, freak out, get one's freak on, go ballistic, go bananas, go berserk, go bonkers
- To do something with the maximum possible effort; to go all out.
- My costume last Halloween was pretty lame, but this time I'm really going to go ham.
- I ordered a couple burgers and just went ham on them.
- Synonyms:
- go the whole hog, full send, put one's whole pussy into
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, ham.
- Don't go ham on me. Don't go ham. I'm the whole works, and you know it. I'm just carrying you.1933, Ben Hecht, Gene Fowler, The Great Magoo: A Love-sick Charade in Three Acts and Something Like Eight Scenes, Recounting the Didoes of Two Young and Amorous Souls, who Nigh Perished when They...
- One of the best reasons to go ham is the quiet hi-fi sound of radios used in the two-meter ham band.1977 06, Popular Mechanics, page 109
Verb (2) capitalized: go HAM
go HAM (third-person singular simple present goes HAM, present participle going HAM, simple past went HAM, past participle gone HAM)
- Alternative spelling of go ham.
Examples of go ham in a sentence
- I'm about to go HAM / Hard as a muthafucker, let these niggas know who I am2011 August, Jay-Z and Kanye West, “H•A•M”, Watch the Throne, deluxe edition, Roc-A-Fella Records
- Nigga I'm the man, I'm the same with the whips / Your baby mama love me, she go ham on the dick2009 June 16, “My Niggaz” (1:52 from the start), in Hustle Till I Die, performed by Juicy J:
Synonyms of go ham
- go crazy
- go wild
- flip one's wig
- flip out
- freak out
- get one's freak on
- go ballistic
- go bananas
- go berserk
- go bonkers
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- go H.A.M.
- go mad
- go nuts
- go potty
- lose it
- lose one's marbles
- lose one's mind
- run amok
- take leave of one's senses
- Note: All terms are idiomatic unless stated otherwise.
- blow a fuse
- blow a gasket
- blow one's stack
- blow one's top
- crash out
- cut up nasty
- cut up rough
- do one's block
- do one's nut
- flip one's lid
- fly into a rage
- fly off the handle
- forget oneself
- get bent out of shape
- get one's back up
- get one's dander up
- get one's Irish up
- go ape
- go apeshit
- go bitchcakes
Forms of go ham
| third-person singular present | goes ham |
|---|---|
| present participle | going ham |
| past | went ham |
| past participle | gone ham |
| alternative form | go HAM |
| alternative form | go H.A.M. |
| third-person singular present | goes HAM |
| present participle | going HAM |
| past | went HAM |
| past participle | gone HAM |
Origin of go ham
Uncertain; the earliest use of the term in the idiomatic sense appears to be in the 2007 song "Go Ham on 'Em" by Soulja Boy (see quotation below), although isolated usage goes back earlier. "Ham" is often thought to be an acronym of "hard as a motherfucker" (with go ham then parsing as go hard as a motherfucker), although this may be a backronym. Alternatively, it could be a phonetic clipping of mayhem. The term was popularized by the 2011 song "H.A.M." by Jay-Z and Kanye West. The fact that go the whole hog and go ham have senses that are synonymous at least raises the question of whether the pig-portions connection is wholly coincidental or not.
See HAM and go hard.
Words that rhyme with go ham
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about go ham
- What does go ham mean?
- Go ham means to enter an enraged and uncontrollable state; to go berserk.
- How do you use go ham in a sentence?
- I'm about to go HAM / Hard as a muthafucker, let these niggas know who I am
- What part of speech is go ham?
- Go ham is a verb.
- How do you pronounce go ham?
- Go ham is pronounced /ɡoʊ ˈhæm/.
- What is the past tense of go ham?
- The past tense of go ham is went ham.
Words near go ham in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: go ham (page history and authors); go HAM (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-go ham.wav.
Cite this entry: “go ham.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_ham. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.