go-by
noun1
The deliberate ignoring or disregard of someone or something.
2
Escape by artifice; evasion.
3
In coursing, the act of passing by or ahead in motion.
- Derived terms
- give the go-by
go by
verbalso spelled go-by1
To pass or go past without much interaction.
- I like to sit and watch the world go by. The rest of the day went by quickly.
2
To be called, to use as a name.
- His full name is Ernest Tinkleton, but he goes by Ernie.
3
With gender pronouns as object To suggest or request that other people use a specific set of gender pronouns when referring to the subject.
- I go by they/them pronouns.
4
To follow; to assume as true for the purposes of making a decision, taking an action, etc.
- I'm only going by what my teacher said.
- a good rule to go by
3 more examples
- The uncared-for external appearance of the tanks is nothing to go by, for the glass-lined tanks are kept in perfect condition.1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the Milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155:
- Martin says Rhymes with Reason is still in the testing phase. It's used in only a handful of classes, and he doesn't yet have reliable data to show that it actually improves test scores or vocabulary. ¶ But if the kids in Eddie Moyé's eighth-grade class are anything to go by, Austin Martin is on to something.2015 December 23, Joe Palca, “Hip-Hop Vocab: The Lexicon Is In The Lyrics”, in NPR:
- Or perhaps we will sink back into our culture of complacent exceptionalism and await the next plague that will surely arrive. To go by recent history, that moment will come sooner than we think.2020 April 9, Richard Horton, “Coronavirus is the greatest global science policy failure in a generation”, in The Guardian: