Word.ws English Dictionary

went ape

went ape is the simple past 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 went ape

What is went ape the simple past of?
Went ape is the simple past of go ape.

Words near went ape in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: went 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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