1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ ‘O, Mrs. Jones,’ says I, ‘look here! Ain’t this a pretty go!’
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 162. Stating his conviction that this was rayther a rummy go.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxxiii. Master Frank Clavering … had only time to ejaculate the words, ‘Here’s a jolly go!’ and to disappear sniggering.
1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xli. ‘I am about to try what a month or two’s absence will do for me.’ ‘And leave us to old Brown?—that will be a nice go!’
1876. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, ch. vii. A rum go as ever I saw.
1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge xvi. He … exclaimed, ‘Well, I’m dashed if this isn’t a rum go!’
1883. R. L. Stevenson, Treasure Island, p. 55. A pretty rum go if squire aint to talk for Doctor Livesey.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 305. ‘It was a near go,’ said Jack.
3. (common).—The fashion; the cheese (q.v.); the correct thing. Generally in the phrase all the go. [[160]]
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. He is quite the go, he is quite varment, he is prime, he is bang up.