Word.ws English Dictionary

have-a-go hero

have-a-go hero noun: an ordinary member of the public who intervenes, often at personal risk, to stop a troublemaker, hooligan or ne'er-do-well in the act of committing a crime.

Noun

have-a-go hero (plural have-a-go heroes)

  1. (UK, informal) An ordinary member of the public who intervenes, often at personal risk, to stop a troublemaker, hooligan or ne'er-do-well in the act of committing a crime.
    • Jack Straw today admitted that he was "always uneasy" about the government's refusal to offer greater protection for have-a-go-heroes as he explained plans to review the laws on self-defence.2007 September 27, Deborah Summers, “Straw reveals past as have-a-go hero”, in The Guardian

Forms of have-a-go hero

pluralhave-a-go heroes

Questions about have-a-go hero

What does have-a-go hero mean?
Have-a-go hero means an ordinary member of the public who intervenes, often at personal risk, to stop a troublemaker, hooligan or ne'er-do-well in the act of committing a crime.
What part of speech is have-a-go hero?
Have-a-go hero is a noun.
What is the plural of have-a-go hero?
The plural of have-a-go hero is have-a-go heroes.

Words near have-a-go hero in the dictionary

  1. have you got the time
  2. have you met me
  3. have'nt
  4. have't
  5. have-a-go
  6. have-a-go hero
  7. have-a-go heroes
  8. have-a-little
  9. have-a-littles
  10. have-all
  11. have-alls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have-a-go hero (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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