go to any length

Idioms

Also, go to great lengths. Take a great deal of trouble for something, go to extremes. For example, He'll go to great lengths to make a perfect chocolate cake, or, as Benjamin Disraeli put it in Coningsby (1844): “He would go ... [to] any lengths for his party.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“I knew then that the group believes the ends justify the means and they would go to any length to smear me, which they did,” Boyle said via text message.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 12, 2022

On the best TV shows, emotionally battered characters go to any length to postpone grief, or sever it, or take it on a vacation, only to find that it won’t be denied.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2022

He theorizes that the Bedouin adoption of rice — a costly foreign grain — as a central ingredient in their cuisine may stem from their famed willingness to go to any length to demonstrate generosity.

From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2021

Much like his father-in-law, he does appear to be willing to go to any length to wriggle out of a jam.

From Salon • Mar. 20, 2019

This might have been prejudice or the result of imagination, yet he realized that he was in the presence of an ambitious rival, who would go to any length to gain his purpose.

From Sustained honor The Age of Liberty Established by Musick, John R. (John Roy)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023