go the distance

Verb

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

1. To participate in a boxing match for its maximum number of rounds.
   • "In a way it's like the quality of muscle and heart that enables some prizefighters to go the distance—twenty, thirty, forty rounds, say," Dick concurred.1915, Jack London, chapter 20, in The Little Lady of the Big House
   • It really don't matter if this guy opens my head, even, cause I all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, seein' that bell ring and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another...1976 November 21, Rocky, spoken by Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone)
2. (broadly, idiomatic) To have the endurance to see a difficult, sustained challenge to its natural end without faltering.
   • "Do you notice how every one is trying to avoid the subject of the war? . . . I am sure they cannot keep it up."
     "They won't go the distance," Julian whispered.1920, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 4, in The Devil's Paw
   • “We are very pleased that we went the distance in this case, all the way through a jury trial, and that we were able to obtain such a tremendous recovery for shareholders.”2013 October 18, Chad Bray, “HSBC to Appeal $2.46 Billion Judgment”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 23 Oct 2015, retrieved 23 Jun 2014