Word.ws English Dictionary

going ape

going ape is the present participle and gerund of go ape.

Meaning of go ape

Verb

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

  1. (slang) To become wildly excited or enthusiastic.
  2. (slang) To become very angry.
    • "Forgot to tell you. Some reporter found out we had a Russkie up here and tried to bluff his way onto the floor. A nurse stopped him. Admiral Blackburn found out and went ape. The whole floor's sealed off. What's the big secret, anyway?"1984, Tom Clancy, “The Eleventh Day: Monday, 13 December”, in The Hunt for Red October, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 267

Questions about going ape

What is going ape the present participle and gerund of?
Going ape is the present participle and gerund of go ape.

Words near going ape in the dictionary

  1. going along for the ride
  2. going along to get along
  3. going along with
  4. going along with the gag
  5. going amiss
  6. going ape
  7. going apeshit
  8. going around
  9. going around in circles
  10. going around the houses
  11. going around with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: going ape (page history and authors); go ape (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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