1892. Tit Bits, 19 Mar., p. 424, c. 1. So it comes to much the same thing, with the exception that you cannot indulge in the sad delight of going for Master Bertie sometimes as you might do were he a member of your own household.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 123. “Well mate, go for him, and we’ll keep the cops off till you settle his hash.”
3. (colloquial).—To support; to favour; to vote for.
4. (theatrical).—To criticise; specifically, to run down. [An extension of sense 2.] For synonyms, see Run down.
To go in for (or at), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To enter for; to apply oneself to (e.g., to go in for honours). Also to devote oneself to (e.g., to pay court); to take up (as a pastime, pursuit, hobby, or principle). Closely allied to go for.
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 18 (ed. 1857). This advice was very like that which bystanders invariably give to the smallest boy in a street fight; namely, ‘Go in, and win’: an admirable thing to recommend, if you only know how to do it.
1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xviii., p. 162. Sometimes I go in at the butcher madly, and cut my knuckles open against his face.
1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, iii., 3. Go in for money——Money’s the article.
1869. Whyte Melville, M. or N., p. 31. Long before he had reached his uncle’s house, he had made up his mind to go in, as he called it, for Miss Bruce, morally confident of winning, yet troubled with certain chilling misgivings, as fearing that this time he had really fallen in love.
1870. Agricultural Jour., Feb. Men who go in for bathing, running, etc.