Gone over to the Majority. A Parliamentary phrase equally, if more generally, applied to one who has passed from the scene of his life’s labours to the spirit world. Ancient and modern authors contain passages in the latter connection. The Rev. Robert Blair in “The Grave” says: “’Tis long since Death had the majority.”
Gone to Pot. Vanished possessions. The reference is to the metalliferous melting pot.
Gone to Rack and Ruin. A corruption of “wreck and ruin.”
Gone to Texas. An American expression for one who has decamped leaving debts behind him. It was (and is) no unusual thing for a man to display this notice, perhaps only the initials “G.T.T.” on his door for the information of callers after he has absconded.
Gone to the Devil. From the twofold circumstance that money lost through lawyers would surely be spent by them at their regular resort, the celebrated “Devil Tavern,” hard by Temple Bar, and the not unusual answer tendered by a subordinate to a caller at a place of business in Fleet Street that his master had “gone to the ‘Devil.’”
Gone to the Dogs. Money that has been squandered uselessly, as the remains of a feast in Eastern countries are thrown to the dogs instead of being given to the poor. A vicious man is said to have gone to the dogs because in the East social outcasts are often worried by ravenous dogs that prowl about the streets by night.
Gone under. One who has sunk in the social scale; never recovered from financial embarrassments; who found it impossible to “keep his head above water.” The allusion is, of course, to drowning.
Gone up the Country. An expression implying that a person is insolvent; originally introduced into England from the Colonies. When a man could not make ends meet in the coast cities he went prospecting up the country.
Gong Punch. The American term for the bell ticket punch used by conductors on tramcars.
Gonville College. The original name of Caius College, Cambridge, founded by Edmund Gonville in 1348.