go out of one's way
go out of one's way verb: to make an extra effort, so as to help or hinder.
Verb
go out of one's way (third-person singular simple present goes out of one's way, present participle going out of one's way, simple past went out of one's way, past participle gone out of one's way)
- To make an extra effort, so as to help or hinder.
- I wouldn't mind some help, but please don't go out of your way for me.
- As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC
Forms of go out of one's way
| third-person singular present | goes out of one's way |
|---|---|
| present participle | going out of one's way |
| past | went out of one's way |
| past participle | gone out of one's way |
Questions about go out of one's way
- What does go out of one's way mean?
- Go out of one's way means to make an extra effort, so as to help or hinder.
- What part of speech is go out of one's way?
- Go out of one's way is a verb.
- What is the past tense of go out of one's way?
- The past tense of go out of one's way is went out of one's way.
Words near go out of one's way in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: go out of one's way (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-go out of one's way.ogg.
Cite this entry: “go out of one's way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_out_of_one%27s_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.