Word.ws English Dictionary

make a go of

make a go of verb: to succeed in (something); especially, to succeed in making a living.

Verb

make a go of (third-person singular simple present makes a go of, present participle making a go of, simple past and past participle made a go of)

  1. (idiomatic) To succeed in (something); especially, to succeed in making a living.
    • He quit his regular job and tried to make a go of it as an artist.
    • They made a go of the new business.

Forms of make a go of

third-person singular presentmakes a go of
present participlemaking a go of
past participlemade a go of
pastmade a go of

Questions about make a go of

What does make a go of mean?
Make a go of means to succeed in (something); especially, to succeed in making a living.
What part of speech is make a go of?
Make a go of is a verb.
What is the past tense of make a go of?
The past tense of make a go of is made a go of.

Words near make a go of in the dictionary

  1. make a face
  2. make a fist of
  3. make a fool of
  4. make a fool out of
  5. make a fortune
  6. make a go of
  7. make a good fist of
  8. make a grab
  9. make a habit of
  10. make a hash of
  11. make a hole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make a go of (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-make a go of.ogg.

Cite this entry: “make a go of.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_a_go_of. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.