go to the mat
go to the mat verb: to continue to struggle or fight until either victorious or defeated.
Verb
go to the mat (third-person singular simple present goes to the mat, present participle going to the mat, simple past went to the mat, past participle gone to the mat)
- To continue to struggle or fight until either victorious or defeated.
- He was ready to go to the mat to keep the old color scheme.
Forms of go to the mat
| third-person singular present | goes to the mat |
|---|---|
| present participle | going to the mat |
| past | went to the mat |
| past participle | gone to the mat |
| alternative form | go to the mats |
Origin of go to the mat
A reference to wrestling.
Questions about go to the mat
- What does go to the mat mean?
- Go to the mat means to continue to struggle or fight until either victorious or defeated.
- What part of speech is go to the mat?
- Go to the mat is a verb.
- What is the past tense of go to the mat?
- The past tense of go to the mat is went to the mat.
Words near go to the mat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: go to the mat (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: en-au-go to the mat.ogg.
Cite this entry: “go to the mat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_to_the_mat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.