"go to the well" meaning in English

See go to the well in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: goes to the well [present, singular, third-person], going to the well [participle, present], went to the well [past], gone to the well [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|go<goes,,went,gone> to the well}} go to the well (third-person singular simple present goes to the well, present participle going to the well, simple past went to the well, past participle gone to the well)
  1. (idiomatic) To draw on a resource or reserve that may be at risk of being exhausted. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: the jug goes to the well until it breaks, the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last
    Sense id: en-go_to_the_well-en-verb-19fulvIQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the well",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the well",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the well",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the well",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the well"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the well (third-person singular simple present goes to the well, present participle going to the well, simple past went to the well, past participle gone to the well)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 20, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "City manager Pep Guardiola asked his side, who suffered such bitter disappointed as their hold on the Champions League trophy was wrestled away by Spanish giants Real, to go to the well once more against a highly-motivated Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To draw on a resource or reserve that may be at risk of being exhausted."
      ],
      "id": "en-go_to_the_well-en-verb-19fulvIQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "draw",
          "draw"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "reserve",
          "reserve"
        ],
        [
          "at risk",
          "at risk"
        ],
        [
          "exhaust",
          "exhaust"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To draw on a resource or reserve that may be at risk of being exhausted."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "the jug goes to the well until it breaks"
        },
        {
          "word": "the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the well"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes to the well",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going to the well",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went to the well",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone to the well",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> to the well"
      },
      "expansion": "go to the well (third-person singular simple present goes to the well, present participle going to the well, simple past went to the well, past participle gone to the well)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "the jug goes to the well until it breaks"
    },
    {
      "word": "the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 20, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "City manager Pep Guardiola asked his side, who suffered such bitter disappointed as their hold on the Champions League trophy was wrestled away by Spanish giants Real, to go to the well once more against a highly-motivated Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To draw on a resource or reserve that may be at risk of being exhausted."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "draw",
          "draw"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "reserve",
          "reserve"
        ],
        [
          "at risk",
          "at risk"
        ],
        [
          "exhaust",
          "exhaust"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To draw on a resource or reserve that may be at risk of being exhausted."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "go to the well"
}

Download raw JSONL data for go to the well meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.