▪ I. gone, ppl. a.
(gɒn, -ɔː-)
[pa. pple. of go v.; for the predicative uses see go v. 48.]
1. Of persons: Lost, ruined, undone. Also, a gone case, a hopeless case; gone sensation (feeling), a feeling of faintness or utter exhaustion. gone coon: U.S. (see coon n. 3). gone goose or gone gosling: a person or thing that is beyond all hope; a ‘gone coon’; a ‘dead duck’ (colloq., orig. U.S.).
| 1598 Bernard Terence in English (1607) 303 Truly I am but a gone man [equidem perij]. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 445 Men think Christ a gone man now and that He shall never get up His head again. 1677 I. Mather Preval. Prayer (1864) 253 We were in Appearance a gone and ruined People. a 1747 D. Brainerd in Bp. Lavington Enthus. (1754) II. 220 One Indian felt that it was a gone Case with him, and thought he must sink down to Hell. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. 247 Had a parson been there, I had certainly been a gone man. 1823 Scott Quentin D. xxii, Up heart, master, or we are but gone men. 1830 Massachusetts Spy 7 July (Th.), You are a gone goose, friend. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxiv, But don't talk so, as if it were a gone case! a 1865 Smyth Sailor's Word-Bk. (1867) 343 Gone-goose, a ship deserted or given up in despair (in extremis). 1886 M. Thompson Banker of Bankerville (1887) xix. 285 If they do git 'im he's a gone goslin'. 1892 Longm. Mag. Jan. 260 That terrible ‘gone’ sensation produced only by prolonged abstinence from food. 1931 D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) 59 But I catch pneumonia, and it looks as if maybe I am a gone gosling. 1949 Sat. Even. Post 19 Mar. 108/3 Two minutes more of her and I'm a gone goose. 1958 J. & W. Hawkins Death Watch (1959) 88 If my luck won't hold..I'm a gone goose anyway. |
2. a. That has departed or passed away; also past and gone. dead and gone (see dead a.).
| 1820 Keats Isabella xx, To honour thee, and thy gone spirit greet. 1839 M. Howitt Marion's Pilgr. vii. xiii. 3 And the gone tenderness of youth Doth to my heart return. 1849 Lytton Caxtons (1856) 115 The gone ages. 1897 Daily News 30 July 7/1 Past and gone conditions of fighting. |
b. In Bowls. (See quot., and cf. go v. 48 b.)
| 1892 Outdoor Games xxxi, A ‘gone bowl’ is one that has stopped a hopeless distance beyond the jack. |
3. a. With advs., as gone-down, gone-out (see go v. 80, 87).
| 1855 Dickens Dorrit i. xiv, In the chair before the gone-out fire..was the gentleman whom she sought. 1888 W. B. Churchward Blackbirding 213, I shan't get more than the gone-down price. |
b. With adj. complement, as gone-soft, gone-wild. (Cf. go v. 44 a.)
| 1925 A. S. M. Hutchinson One Increasing Purpose iii. xv, Not a fit man..but a gone-soft and nerve-wracked man. 1960 Times 13 Jan. 13/6 The mammalian predators of the rabbit: fox, badger, stoat, weasel, tame and gone-wild cats. |
4. Very inspired or excited; ‘out of this world’; extremely satisfying; excellent; esp. in phr. real gone. slang (orig. U.S. jazz musicians').
| 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues 374/1 Gone, out of this world, superlative. Gone with it, really inspired, completely in control of the situation. 1948 Jazz Jrnl. Aug. 2 (heading) Real gone gal—the history of Nellie Lutcher. 1957 J. Kerouac On Road (1958) i. xi. 60, I have found the gonest little girl in the world. 1958 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 10 Feb. 11 Gone—the best, in the top rung, the coolest. 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’. 1967 L. J. Brown Cat who ate Danish Modern xvi. 141 This is a real gone pad..it's what the clients expect. |
5. Used absol. as n. Those who are dead.
| 1908 Daily Chron. 13 May 3/3 Unconscious imitations of Browning and others of the great and the gone. 1914 Hardy Satires of Circumstance 52 The speakers, sundry phantoms of the gone. |
Hence ˈgoner slang, one who is dead or undone; something which is doomed or ended.
| 1850 ‘Dow, Jr.’ in Sunday Mercury (N.Y.) 6 Jan. 2/6 Last Monday..the old year was not quite a goner. 1854 M. J. Holmes Tempest & Sunshine v. 211 I'd soon give you up as a goner. 1857 Thoreau Maine W. (1894) 365 He exclaimed, ‘She is a goner!’..There, to be sure, she lay perfectly dead. 1891 N. Gould Double Event 261 Make a noise, or follow me, and you're a goner. 1930 ‘E. Bramah’ Little Flutter xiii. 153 If it failed he was—if one may be permitted the word in the excitement of the moment—a ‘goner’. 1933 Boys' Mag. XLVII. 124/2 When I found the car burnt out I thought you were a ‘goner’. 1945 Auden For Time Being 12 Rome will be a goner. |
▪ II. gone
variant of gane v., Obs., to gape; variant of gan pa. tense of gin v., to begin; obs. form of gun.