Word.ws English Dictionary

went one better

went one better is the simple past of go one better.

Meaning of go one better

Verb

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

  1. To take a bet and add another to it.
  2. To outdo somebody; to do something that surpasses what came before.
    • Arsenal, who have finished second for the past three seasons, added Spain international Martin Zubimendi to their midfield for £60m this summer as they look to go one better and win the title.2025 October 21, Alex Howell, “The evolution of Rice - how midfielder became Arsenal's all-rounder”, in BBC Sport

Questions about went one better

What is went one better the simple past of?
Went one better is the simple past of go one better.

Words near went one better in the dictionary

  1. went on strike
  2. went on the account
  3. went on the mitch
  4. went on the scout
  5. went on vacation
  6. went one better
  7. went one's own way
  8. went one's ways
  9. went or blew
  10. went out
  11. went out like a light

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: went one better (page history and authors); go one better (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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