goneadj.n.
/ɡɒn/, U.S. /ɡɔn/, /ɡɑn/ A. adj. Use as adjective developed out of the perfect construction with be as auxiliary, reinterpreted as main verb with participial adjective; hence many examples of be gone from the period when this perfect construction was in common ordinary use (down to the 18th cent. approximately) are ambiguous between the dynamic perfect and the stative adjectival use (and perhaps were so at the time): compare especially go v. 6, go v. 22a, go v. 24a. See also the special uses of the past participle which have not developed into adjectives at go v. IV.*† 4. Archery and Bowls. Of a player, arrow, or bowl: that has overshot the mark or jack. Also (and in earliest use) in figurative contexts. Cf. short adj. 16. Obsolete.
1.
a. That has left or departed; no longer present; consumed, used up; (of time or a period of time) past.Sometimes coupled with past.long-gone: see long adv.1 Compounds 1a.
(a) In predicative use. Cf. go v. 22a.
ΚΠ
c1450 (?c1435) in Mod. Lang. Notes (1937) 52 3 An ernest grote whan hit is dronke and gone Bargeyn of merchantes stont in aventure.
1490 W. Caxton tr. Eneydos xlv. 136 Vysus dyde putte hym self in tyl a path and was soone goon ferre from hys enmyes.
1565 J. Jewel Def. Apol. Churche Eng. (1609) ii. 151 When the right Key of Knowledge was lost and gone, it was time to deuise some other prety pick~locks to worke the feat.
1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 105 I shall reckon up only such authors whose records..are lost and gone.
a1704 R. L'Estrange Fables Moralized (1708) 160 Her Husband's Doughty Exploits, in Times gone and past.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 157 My Ink, as I observed, had been gone for some time, all but a very little, which I eek'd out with Water.
1738 Gentleman's Mag. Aug. 413 The last Glimmering of hope was gone.
1835 J. Morier Adventures Hajji Baba (rev. ed.) xlvii. 260 My money is gone, and I am left behind.
1867 Felton's Greece, Anc. & Mod. I. 498 The age of calligraphy is gone.
1912 Add. & Proc. 3rd National Conservation Congr. 1911 141 The scientific men will find plenty of ways of finding heat and motive power when the coal is all gone.
1986 Pop. Sci. June 33 (advt.) The rust is gone—not just covered up—gone! For good.
2010 E. de Waal Hare with Amber Eyes (2011) 276 The globes are gone,..the French chairs are gone.
(b) In attributive use.
ΚΠ
1580 T. Churchyard Pleasaunte Laborinth: Churchyardes Chance f. 28v O my goon Lorde, who blusheth not, before the niggards face: To showe an emptie bagge.
1745 London Mag. Sept. 431/2 I don't see it necessary..to depreciate the gone Minister.
1799 Llewellin I. i. 2 I mean not by this to infer that the shade of misfortune invariably hung over my gone days.
1839 M. Howitt Marien's Pilgr. vii. xiii. 3 And the gone tenderness of youth Doth to my heart return.
1849 E. Bulwer-Lytton Caxtons I. vii. i. 296 He read but his old authors, and lived with them through the gone ages.
1897 Daily News 30 July 7/1 Past and gone conditions of fighting.
1940 ‘R. Rocklynne’ in Astounding Sci.-Fiction June 61/1 Far past in the gone ages of our race, we were pitiful, tiny blobs of energy.
1968 H. Kenner Counterfeiters iii. 96 Learning to read the gone Past by looking at mute present objects.
1992 D. Bromwich Politics by Other Means v. 182 No one looks back to a gone era of rationality in the conduct of academic corporate bodies.
2012 E. Schwitzgebel in D. Smithies & D. Stoljar Introspection & Consciousness i. i. 38 Nor does it seem that we can directly and non-introspectively, self-express past and gone mental states.
b. Departed from life; dead. Cf. go v. 24a.Sometimes coupled with dead (cf. dead and gone at dead adj. 32a).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > dead person or the dead > [adjective]
deadOE
lifelessOE
of lifeOE
storvena1225
dead as a door-nail1362
ydead1387
stark deadc1390
colda1400
bypast1425
perishedc1440
morta1450
obita1450
unquickc1449
gone?a1475
dead and gone1482
extinct1483
departed1503
bygonea1522
amort1546
soulless1553
breathless1562
parted1562
mortified1592
low-laid1598
disanimate1601
carcasseda1603
defunct1603
no morea1616
with God1617
death-stricken1618
death-strucken1622
expired1631
past itc1635
incinerated1657
stock-dead1662
dead as a herring1664
death-struck1688
as dead as a nit1789
(as) dead as mutton1792
low1808
laid in the locker1815
strae-dead1820
disanimated1833
ghosted1834
under the daisies1842
irresuscitable1843
under the sod1847
toes up1851
dead and buried1863
devitalized1866
translated1869
dead and done (for, with)1886
daid1890
bung1893
(as) dead as the (or a) dodo1904
six feet under1942
brown bread1969
?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 213 What whith may helpe oure hevynes now þat oure brother is gon and deed.
1528 W. Tyndale Obed. Christen Man f. c As Paul is past and gone, never the lesse the worde that Paul preached lasteth ever.
1583 A. Marten tr. P. M. Vermigli Common Places i. xiv. 143/1 Thou maist see some [men], which are not honoured, till they be quite gone.
1620 N. Rogers True Convert 30 A large broode of prophane ones hee hath left behinde him (though he himself be dead and gone).
1643 E. Hinton Vanity of Self-boasters 48 I should much injure my gone friend, who was a profest enemy to multitude of words.
1705 J. Addison Remarks Italy 230 A Dog, that has his Nose held in the Vapour, dies in a very little time; but if carry'd into the open Air..recovers, if he is not quite gone.
?1789 E. Inchbald Animal Magnetism iii. 32 Alas, he is gone, and nothing can be of use.
1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xxviii. 133 Strange that..one should be living, warm and beautiful..one day, and the next be gone, utterly gone, and for ever!
1885 W. P. Clark Indian Sign Lang. 122 We know that this is caused by the dust raised by the dead and gone Comanches.
1915 C. J. Dennis Songs Sentimental Bloke 114 A son, to bear me name when I am gone.
1983 Third Way July 6/1 History will roll on well enough without us when we are gone.
2009 L. McMurtry Literary Life v. 30 As I was writing this memoir word came that John Updike died—a great man of letters is gone.
2. Chiefly colloquial.
a. Lost; ruined, doomed, undone; beyond hope of recovery, help, etc.; ‘done for’.
(a) In predicative use.Recorded earliest in far gone adj. 1.
ΚΠ
1533 T. Paynell tr. U. von Hutten De Morbo Gallico xix. f. 47v We be so farre gone, that we excede all other nations, be they neuer so euyll, in suche abundaunce and voluptuous pleasures.
1593 N. Breton in R. S. Phœnix Nest 30 Loose not the Queene, for ten to one, If she be lost, the game is gone.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iii. v. 16 Well, you are gone both wayes. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) v. i. 296 Is the Duke gone? Then is your cause gone too. View more context for this quotation
1625 in Virginia Mag. Hist. & Biogr. (1893) 1 162 The terror whereof..so dismaide the whole Colony, as they allmost gave themselves for gone.
a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Custome of Countrey v. v, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Cc4v/1 I am gon.
1709 D. Manley Secret Mem. (ed. 2) II. 248 That wou[l]d be giving the Matter for gone.
1798 Invasion I. 226 Waterford, at the first sight of a person by whom he was known, gave himself up for gone.
1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia I. iii. v. 234 Seeing the Battle gone..Ludwig too had to fly.
1889 ‘B. W. D.’ & ‘Cavendish’ Whist 71 If he leads the usual ace, king, the game is distinctly gone.
1970 J. Bouton Ball Four vi. 304 I came into the game in the second inning. George Brunet had had some bad luck; a few bleeders, a few shots, and the game was gone.
2014 Chronicle (Toowoomba, Queensland) (Nexis) 17 Mar. 29 With the match already gone, Blake Anderson (42)..and Chris Hall (31no) used the second innings as batting practice.
(b) In attributive use. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > [adjective] > destroyed
forwroughta1325
lorna1400
destroyedc1440
perishedc1440
shentc1440
defeatc1540
spiltc1540
dissolved?1541
interempt1561
baned1568
mischievedc1570
defeated1578
ruined1585
downcast1592
gone1598
collapsed1610
to take up for hawks' meat1612
naughta1616
blasted1747
wreckeda1821
butchered1839
fucked-up1863
kaput1895
piled-up1906
shambled1940
the mind > will > necessity > fate or destiny as determining events > [adjective] > fraught with destiny > fraught with doom > doomed
gone1598
doomed1869
1598 R. Bernard tr. Terence Adelphi iv. ii, in Terence in Eng. 303 Truly I am but a gone man [L. equidem perij].
1637 S. Rutherford Lett. (1863) I. 445 Men think Christ a gone man now and that He shall never get up His head again.
1677 I. Mather Hist. Disc. Prevalency of Prayer (1864) 253 We were in Appearance a gone and ruined People.
a1747 D. Brainerd in G. Lavington Enthusiasm Methodists & Papists: Pt. III (1751) 284 One Indian felt that it was a gone Case with him, and thought he must sink down to Hell.
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa III. xliv. 228 Had a parson been there, I had certainly been a gone man.
1814 J. Galt Watch-house in New Brit. Theatre I. ii. i. 58 It's all over wi' you, madam; ye're a gone dick: ye hear he's confessing.
1834 Reformer's Gaz. 28 June 23 The cause of the Tories is a gone cause.
1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xxiv. 82 But don't talk so, as if it were a gone case!
1892 Longman's Mag. Jan. 260 That terrible ‘gone’ sensation produced only by prolonged abstinence from food.
1912 Lady Gregory Canavans iii, in Irish Folk-hist. Plays 71 You to have done that, I am a gone man.
1921 Amer. Mag. Aug. 47/2 If dem shoes gives out, you'se a gone niggah, 'cause you cain't even hunt fo' wuk.
b. U.S. In gone duck, gone goose, and similarly with other nouns denoting animals. Designating a person who or thing which is a lost cause or beyond hope of recovery. Cf. dead duck n. at dead adj., n., and adv. Compounds 2. See also gone coon n. Now somewhat archaic. †it's (a) gone goose with: it is all up with (a person) (obsolete).With gone duck cf. earlier gone dick (cf. dick n.1 1a) in quot. 1814 at sense A. 2a(b).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > despair, hopelessness > desperate state or condition > [adjective]
deplorate1544
deplored1559
hopeless1566
hopelost1570
insperable1623
deplorable1684
gone duck1830
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [adjective] > possessed with extravagant folly
assotted1393
infonded1567
affatuated1649
gone duck1830
affatuate1834
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > despair, hopelessness > desperate state or condition > [noun] > person or thing beyond hope
unreclaimable1649
gone duck1830
goner1836
gone coon1837
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > despair, hopelessness > desperate state or condition > [adjective] > of states or events
deplorate1544
deplored1559
hopeless1566
despaired1597
insperable1623
despaired of1635
gone duck1830
1830 Massachusetts Spy 7 July You are a gone goose, friend.
1833 New-Hampsh. Statesman 2 Feb. Finding it would be a gone goose with him pretty soon if he staid there, he began to sing out..for us to come and take him.
1834 W. G. Simms Guy Rivers I. xiii. 198 I thought myself a gone chick under that spur.
1840 Good Hard Cider (sheet music) in Six Patriotic Ballads We're a couple gone ducks, in the sight of that pair.
1841 Gift 1842 110 I begun to think then it was gone goose with us.
1860 E. Bennett Forest & Prairie 295 All at once the blood began to gush from my nose, and mouth, and ears, and then I knowed, ef I couldn't play possum and come the blind over the Injun, I war a gone beaver.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 343 Gone-goose, a ship deserted or given up in despair (in extremis).
1873 National Live-stock Jrnl. (Chicago) Oct. 349/3 After that it is all ‘gone goose’ with the next generation.
1886 J. M. Thompson Banker of Bankersville (1887) xix. 285 If they do git 'im he's a gone goslin'.
1931 D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) 59 But I catch pneumonia, and it looks as if maybe I am a gone gosling.
1945 N. H. Thorp & N. M. Clark Pardner of Wind 69 A cowboy without a horse was a gone gander for sure.
1958 J. Hawkins & W. Hawkins Death Watch (1959) 88 If my luck won't hold..I'm a gone goose anyway.
1997 W. M. Gear Coyote Summer (1997) v. 70 Stop thinking, stop being wary as a lamb in the lion's den, and yer gone beaver.
2009 Tulsa (Oklahoma) World (Nexis) 11 May If Obama gets his way we are gone goslings.
3. Of a woman or other female mammal: pregnant (with offspring). Chiefly with adverb or complement indicating the amount of time elapsed in pregnancy or its degree of advancement.
ΚΠ
1543 ( Chron. J. Hardyng (1812) 160 Ethelfrides wyfe with chylde farre gone, Violently exiled and repudiate.
1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 1734/2 Elizabeth Pepper..when she was burned at Stratford, was .xi wekes gone with chylde.
1612 E. Grimeston tr. L. T. de Mayerne Gen. Hist. Spaine xx. 778 The King..left the Queene at Segobia three monthes gonne with child, but she miscarried soone after the Kings departure.
1684 T. Otway Atheist iv. 50 The Drab is full gone with Bastard.
1726 Quincy's Lexicon Physico-medicum (ed. 3) A young Woman not long gone with Child.
1771 J. J. Hornyold Grounds Christian's Belief 88 She was Six Months gone, who was esteemed barren.
1805 W. Godwin Fleetwood III. xix. 332 And she was several months gone with child!
1845 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 5 526 She will then be about four months gone with foal.
1931 W. Holtby Poor Caroline iv. 133 Brought her to the Home, four months gone, and won't be fifteen till next March.
1961 R. A. W. Hughes Fox in Attic (1962) xxv. 323 Mary was now two months gone with child and her doctor did not really approve of her riding at all.
2009 A. Shaw Negotiating Risk vi. 175 I was twenty weeks gone, so I could not terminate.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > competitive shooting > archery > [adjective] > type of shooting or shot
steadfast1535
gone1545
short1545
1545 R. Ascham Toxophilus i. f. 7 Vertue..couetinge to come nighest a moost perfite ende or meane standing betwixte .ii. extremes, eschewinge shorte, or gone, or eithersyde wide.
1576 A. Fleming tr. J. Ravisius in Panoplie Epist. 350 If he failed, and was either short, or gone, or wyde, in directing his shafte.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Passé, Ie suis passé I am gone, or ouercast, I haue throwne ouer, at Bowles, &c.
1615 T. Adams Englands Sicknes i. 34 The people aime at Christ, but either short or gone.
1658 J. Spencer Καινα και Παλαια 92 To shoot as Jonathan did at David, either short or gone, that wheresoever he hits, he may not hurt.
1677 G. Miege New Dict. French & Eng. ii. sig. V4/3 Gone, or overcast at bowles, passé.
1887 Boy's Own Paper 12 Nov. 111/3 A ‘gone bowl’ is one that has stopped a hopeless distance beyond the jack.
1897 W. L. Rushton Shakespeare an Archer 87 Those [arrows] which were short, or gone, or on either side wide, were frequently in danger of being broken by the archers walking from end to end.
5. Chiefly colloquial. Of a person.
a. In an advanced stage of some (bad or worsening) state or condition, esp. madness, love, or infatuation. Also with for, in, on, †with. Cf. gone in the head at Phrases.Recorded earliest in far gone adj. 1.
ΚΠ
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II ii. i. 185 Yorke is too far gone with griefe. View more context for this quotation
1622 L. Digges tr. G. de Céspedes y Meneses Gerardo ii. iii. 456 Fernando, after many a sight of Elisa, was so extremely gone in her affection.
1698 J. Collier Short View Immorality Eng. Stage i. 12 Silenium is much gone in Love, but modest withal.
1733 Capt. Downes All Vows Kept iii. 36 Extreamly gone in Love, extreamly chaste.
1840 Tracts for Times 1838–40 5 130 Lost men (that is, men desperately gone in wickedness).
1858 T. Guthrie Christ & Inheritance Saints (1860) 38 Gone in iniquity they boast..of the victims whom they have seduced.
1885 Illustr. London News Christmas No. 7/1 Iris was gone on you yesterday.
1902 H. James Wings of Dove I. iv. 110 I am, of course, ‘gone’ for you.
1957 M. Spark Comforters viii. 189 The Baron..is clean gone... He related the most bats tale I've ever heard.
1986 E. Clark Camping Out i. 27 You were too gone in grief and shock to see anything.
2000 S. Vickers Miss Garnet's Angel 114 Luckily he's a bit gone on me.
b. Very intoxicated by drink or (later) drugs. Also: in a state of faint or swoon, unconscious. Also with in, on. Cf. far gone adj. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > thirst > excess in drinking > [adjective] > drunk > completely or very drunk
drunk as a (drowned) mousea1350
to-drunka1382
as drunk as the devilc1400
sow-drunk1509
fish-drunk1591
swine-drunk1592
gone1603
far gone1616
reeling drunk1620
soda1625
souseda1625
blind1630
full1631
drunk (also merry, tipsy) as a lord1652
as full (or tight) as a tick1678
clear1688
drunk (dull, mute) as a fish1700
as drunk as David's sow or as a sow1727
as drunk as a piper1728
blind-drunkc1775
bitch foua1796
blootered1820
whole-seas over1820
three sheets in the wind1821
as drunk as a loon1830
shellaced1881
as drunk as a boiled owl1886
stinking1887
steaming drunk1892
steaming with drink1897
footless1901
legless1903
plastered1912
legless drunk1926
stinko1927
drunk as a pissant1930
kaylied1937
langers1949
stoned1952
smashed1962
shit-faced1963
out of (also off) one's bird1966
trashed1966
faced1968
stoned1968
steaming1973
langered1979
annihilated1980
obliterated1984
wankered1992
muntered1998
1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 694 His sense and understanding who is cleane gone, & as they say dead drunke, is done and oppressed altogether.
a1629 W. Hinde Faithfull Remonstr. (1641) lxvi. 219 Hee could take no food..but he was ready to faint and to be gone upon it.
1657 T. Burton Diary (1828) II. 70 The Speaker..said, I am a yea, a no, I should say. This caused an alternate laughter all the House over, and some said he was gone.
1661 S. Pepys Diary 9 Sept. (1970) II. 175 Sir W. Penn..hath been drinking today and so is almost gone that we could not make him understand it.
1681 H. More Plain Expos. Daniel Pref. p. vii Men so much gone in drink..would not be able to make any thing of it.
1754 A. Berthelson Eng. & Danish Dict. at Gone Gone in drink, drukken, beskiænked.
1844 B. Disraeli Coningsby I. i. ix. 112 We arrived to find the bodies of Millbank and Coningsby apparently lifeless, for Millbank was quite gone, and Coningsby had swooned on landing.
1859 G. A. Sala Gaslight & Daylight xiv. 161 Quite gone in liquor and overcome with the tasting-orders of years.
1860 Mrs. H. Wood Danesbury House xix. 250 She..sobbed out a faltering excuse for Lionel—that he was ‘quite gone’... ‘If he would but keep from drink!’ she moaned.
1957 C. MacInnes City of Spades i. viii. 43 I saw Mr. Pew was high—real gone.
1988 Black Belt Sept. 15/3 There was a person in the corner totally gone on heroin.
2006 Sunday Mail (Nexis) 23 Apr. 17 I'm a cheap night out—three drinks and I'm gone.
6. slang (originally and chiefly U.S.). Excellent; very inspired or excited; ‘out of this world’. Esp. in real gone. Now somewhat dated.Originally in the language of jazz musicians.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > excellence > [adjective]
faireOE
bremea1000
goodlyOE
goodfulc1275
noblec1300
pricec1300
specialc1325
gentlec1330
fine?c1335
singulara1340
thrivena1350
thriven and throa1350
gaya1375
properc1380
before-passinga1382
daintiful1393
principala1398
gradelya1400
burlyc1400
daintyc1400
thrivingc1400
voundec1400
virtuousc1425
hathelc1440
curiousc1475
singlerc1500
beautiful1502
rare?a1534
gallant1539
eximious1547
jolly1548
egregious?c1550
jellyc1560
goodlike1562
brawc1565
of worth1576
brave?1577
surprising1580
finger-licking1584
admirablea1586
excellinga1586
ambrosial1598
sublimated1603
excellent1604
valiant1604
fabulous1609
pure1609
starryc1610
topgallant1613
lovely1614
soaringa1616
twanging1616
preclarent1623
primea1637
prestantious1638
splendid1644
sterling1647
licking1648
spankinga1666
rattling1690
tearing1693
famous1695
capital1713
yrare1737
pure and —1742
daisy1757
immense1762
elegant1764
super-extra1774
trimming1778
grand1781
gallows1789
budgeree1793
crack1793
dandy1794
first rate1799
smick-smack1802
severe1805
neat1806
swell1810
stamming1814
divine1818
great1818
slap-up1823
slapping1825
high-grade1826
supernacular1828
heavenly1831
jam-up1832
slick1833
rip-roaring1834
boss1836
lummy1838
flash1840
slap1840
tall1840
high-graded1841
awful1843
way up1843
exalting1844
hot1845
ripsnorting1846
clipping1848
stupendous1848
stunning1849
raving1850
shrewd1851
jammy1853
slashing1854
rip-staving1856
ripping1858
screaming1859
up to dick1863
nifty1865
premier cru1866
slap-bang1866
clinking1868
marvellous1868
rorty1868
terrific1871
spiffing1872
all wool and a yard wide1882
gorgeous1883
nailing1883
stellar1883
gaudy1884
fizzing1885
réussi1885
ding-dong1887
jim-dandy1888
extra-special1889
yum-yum1890
out of sight1891
outasight1893
smooth1893
corking1895
large1895
super1895
hot dog1896
to die for1898
yummy1899
deevy1900
peachy1900
hi1901
v.g.1901
v.h.c.1901
divvy1903
doozy1903
game ball1905
goodo1905
bosker1906
crackerjack1910
smashinga1911
jake1914
keen1914
posh1914
bobby-dazzling1915
juicy1916
pie on1916
jakeloo1919
snodger1919
whizz-bang1920
wicked1920
four-star1921
wow1921
Rolls-Royce1922
whizz-bang1922
wizard1922
barry1923
nummy1923
ripe1923
shrieking1926
crazy1927
righteous1930
marvy1932
cool1933
plenty1933
brahmaa1935
smoking1934
solid1935
mellow1936
groovy1937
tough1937
bottler1938
fantastic1938
readyc1938
ridge1938
super-duper1938
extraordinaire1940
rumpty1940
sharp1940
dodger1941
grouse1941
perfecto1941
pipperoo1945
real gone1946
bosting1947
supersonic1947
whizzo1948
neato1951
peachy-keen1951
ridgey-dite1953
ridgy-didge1953
top1953
whizzing1953
badass1955
wild1955
belting1956
magic1956
bitching1957
swinging1958
ridiculous1959
a treat1959
fab1961
bad-assed1962
uptight1962
diggish1963
cracker1964
marv1964
radical1964
bakgat1965
unreal1965
pearly1966
together1968
safe1970
bad1971
brilliant1971
fabby1971
schmick1972
butt-kicking1973
ripper1973
Tiffany1973
bodacious1976
rad1976
kif1978
awesome1979
death1979
killer1979
fly1980
shiok1980
stonking1980
brill1981
dope1981
to die1982
mint1982
epic1983
kicking1983
fabbo1984
mega1985
ill1986
posho1989
pukka1991
lovely jubbly1992
awesomesauce2001
nang2002
bess2006
amazeballs2009
boasty2009
daebak2009
beaut2013
1946 Pittsburgh Courier 7 Sept. 23/1 As Lenny Lewis would say, ‘This is a gone town.’ Boil it down into a language we speak and you have a city which jumps both night and day.
1946 M. Mezzrow & B. Wolfe Really Blues 374/1 Gone, out of this world, superlative. Gone with it, really inspired, completely in control of the situation.
1947 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Jrnl. 26 Feb. 2/1 ‘I'll lock you in a room with a hundred new hats and no mirror,’ Fred said admiringly. ‘You're real gone. You're the gonest thing!’
1957 J. Kerouac On the Road i. xi. 60 I have found the gonest little girl in the world.
1959 Spectator 1 May 613/2 Snapping his fingers in a very gone fashion to the beat.
1959 News Chron. 14 Oct. 8/6 The jazz-loving ‘hep-cat’ who claims that the music ‘sends’ him until he is ‘gone’.
1973 New Pittsburgh Courier 15 Dec. 14/1 Louisville Girl Friends celebrated their Twentieth Anniversary..with a party, a real gone gala held at the Stratford 'en Avon Ballroom at the Marriott Inn.
2002 List (Glasgow & Edinb. Events Guide) 25 Apr. 82/4 Slick daddies and real gone chicks cut a rug to a wild and wanton mix of rockabilly, swing, R&B, Cajun, doo-wop, surf and garage punk.
B. n.
With the and plural agreement: those who have gone (in various senses of go v.); esp. the dead (cf. the departed at departed adj. 4b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > dead person or the dead > [noun]
the holy soulsc950
the deadc1000
dead1340
deadmana1400
the defunct1548
sleeper1590
gone?1614
grave-fellow1642
under-dead1648
the deceased1673
the majority1721
the departed1722
the dear departed1814
sleeper1827
goner1836
gone coon1837
silent majority1874
?1614 G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses x. 158 Nor suffer one Of all the faint shades, of the dead and gone, T'approch the blood.
1764 R. Jones Hist. Lex. at Elegy, in Origin of Lang. & Nations Alaeth is from al-aeth, upon the gone or dead.
1781 M. Seixas Let. 12 June in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. (1915) 7th Ser. X. 137 I am of opinion flour will be very dull here now the French Army are gone from hence... Amongst the gone are those which held your House, etc.
1830 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 952/2 A great general in the moment of victory, before the gloss of triumph has been tarnished by one regret for the gone, or one calculation for the future.
1887 Ballou's Monthly Mag. Mar. 237/2 Ghosts of the past flit around us. Phantoms of the gone are at our side.
1908 Daily Chron. 13 May 3/3 Unconscious imitations of Browning and others of the great and the gone.
1992 W. Stafford in E. Field et al. New Geogr. of Poets 40 Red Wolf came, and Passenger Pigeon, The Dodo bird, all the gone and endangered Came and crowded around in a circle.
2008 Best Life Sept. 98/3 The dead are buried, the lost may never be found, and the gone..well, I guess they're just plain gone.
Phrases
colloquial. gone in the head: (of a person) mentally unbalanced, crazy.
ΚΠ
1884 J. T. Platts Dict. Urdū, Classical Hindī, & Eng. 648/2 ‘Gone in the head,’ distracted.
1902 A. K. McClure Recoll. Half Cent. 332 He..placed his finger upon his forehead, and said: ‘Sherman's gone in the head; he's luny’.
1915 G. Barton Bell Haven Five xi. 137 He must have been gone in the head. He surely acted like a man that was half-cracked.
1979 J. Johnston Old Jest 7 The fish man's son..lost the sight of his right eye and is now a little gone in the head.
2012 Daily Post (N. Wales) (Nexis) 9 May 22 The guy is mental. He's gone in the head.
Compounds
C1. With adverbs, with the sense ‘that has gone ——’ (in uses corresponding to phrasal verbs at go v. Phrasal verbs 1), as gone-down, gone-out, etc.
ΚΠ
1828 La Belle Assemblée 1 Aug. 70/1 These are yet the upward rays of the gone-down sun of that great theatrical luminary.
1856 C. Dickens Little Dorrit (1857) i. xiv. 120 In the chair before the gone-out fire..was the gentleman whom she sought.
1866 J. R. Lowell in Nation 25 Jan. 106/2 A gone-up man, I've..a plan Of asking your assistance.
1888 W. B. Churchward ‘Blackbirding’ in S. Pacific 213 I shan't get more than the gone-down price.
1907 H. de V. Stacpoole Crimson Azaleas ii. xvi. 136 George..was swaying slightly in his chair, the gone-out cigar still stuck in the side of his mouth.
1916 E. W. Wilcox World Voices 79 (title of poem) The land of the Gone-Away Souls.
1937 D. M. Jones In Parenthesis vi. 136 Private Saunders felt for the gone-out candle-end.
2006 ‘J. le Carré’ Mission Song i. 15 My English voice..hasn't so much as a trace of the gone-away vowels of my dear late father's Irish brogue.
C2. With an adjective or (occasionally) other complement, with the sense ‘that has gone or become ——’ (cf. go v. 44a), as gone-mad, gone-off, gone-soft, gone-wild, etc.
ΚΠ
1843 Metrop. Mag. June 205 A wild, harum-scarum, sort of gone-mad person.
1904 C. C. Harrison Sylvia's Husband i. 6 Her too-mature daughter, Maud, resembling a gone-off Botticelli nymph.
1910 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Oct. 354/3 Lives of the Fur Folk. The Biographies of Redpath the Fox—Fluff-button the Rabbit—Grimalkin the ‘gone wild’ Cat—Stubbs the Badger. By M. D. Haviland.
1921 Harper's Mag. Dec. 96/1 She is one of the gone-out-of-date young women who rather appeal to me.
1925 A. S. M. Hutchinson One Increasing Purpose iii. xv. 379 Not a fit man..but a gone-soft and nerve-wracked man.
1961 R. L. Taylor Journey to Matecumbe xx. 292 Animals will turn a gone-bad specimen out of a pack, and so will a native tribe.
1995 Take One: Film in Canada Summer 34/2 Emilio Estevez is a gone-wrong lawyer..sentenced to community service coaching kids.
2006 K. Noel Halfway House xvi. 165 She pulled out the potatoes, the gone-soft celery, the carrots with their soft white fringe of new roots.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.c1450