give the go-by
"give-the-go-by" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“give the go-by” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To leave behind, outdistance.
Corpus desk
Index EN-give-the-go-by · give the go-by · English
give the go-by · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | give the go-by |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “give the go-by” in English
Rare enough to double-check
give the go-by is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for give the go-by, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is give the go-by, spelled G-I-V-E- -T-H-E- -G-O---B-Y.
Definition
- 1To leave behind, outdistance.
- 2To avoid dealing with; to disregard, ignore.
- 3To snub (someone); to end a relationship.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how give the go-by appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Sliding Cube was taken on in front at Randwick and a couple of runners gave her the ‘go by’ when the field straightened.
[T]hey express sweetly enough some natural sentiments,—and what more would you have in a song? You have had far more in some songs to which we have given the go-by […]
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.