Word.ws English Dictionary

gone ape

gone ape is the past participle 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 gone ape

What is gone ape the past participle of?
Gone ape is the past participle of go ape.

Words near gone ape in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gone 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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