Word.ws English Dictionary

goes the distance

goes the distance is the third-person singular simple present indicative of go the distance.

Meaning of 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
  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

Questions about goes the distance

What is goes the distance the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Goes the distance is the third-person singular simple present indicative of go the distance.

Words near goes the distance in the dictionary

  1. goes sour
  2. goes south
  3. goes straight
  4. goes strong
  5. goes supernova
  6. goes the distance
  7. goes the entire animal
  8. goes the entire swine
  9. goes the extra mile
  10. goes the route
  11. goes the way of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goes the distance (page history and authors); go the distance (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: “goes the distance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goes_the_distance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.