Word.ws English Dictionary

going great guns

going great guns is the present participle and gerund of go great guns.

Meaning of go great guns

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To perform particularly well; to be particularly successful.
    • The game between Hargate and Lord Dreever was still in progress when Jimmy returned to the billiard-room. . . . "Hargate's been going great guns. I was eleven ahead a moment ago, but he made a break of twelve."1910, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 17, in The Intrusion of Jimmy
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, great guns. (To move or proceed very quickly or energetically.)
    • Sam Fuller and the crew of New York Clipper continue to go great guns and retain a comfortable lead as they approach the south eastern tip of Cuba.2002 December 4, “Cuba Beckons: Clipper Race 2002”, in International Sailing Federation (www.sailing.org), retrieved 05 Nov 2010

Questions about going great guns

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

Words near going great guns in the dictionary

  1. going from zero to hero
  2. going gaga over
  3. going Galt
  4. going gentle into that good night
  5. going gold
  6. going great guns
  7. going green
  8. going H.A.M.
  9. going half and half
  10. going halfsies
  11. going halves

Source and license

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