going on


Also, going on for. Approaching, especially an age or time. For example, She's twelve, going on thirteen, or It's going on for midnight. The first term dates from the late 1500s, the variant from the mid-1800s. Also see go on.

Words Nearby going on

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use going on in a sentence

  • Snooky was three-going-on-four, and looked something like an angel—only healthier and with grimier hands.

    Cheerful--By Request | Edna Ferber
  • For example, we perceive the going-on of the Great Pyramid in its relations to the goings-on of the surrounding Egyptian events.

    The Concept of Nature | Alfred North Whitehead
  • It comes back, how serious I was about the drawing, at going-on-five.

  • For the standpoint of three-years-old is quite different from that of fourteen-going-on-fifteen.

    Missy | Dana Gatlin
  • Maybe I am only going-on-eighteen, but I'm doing a man's work, and I'm doing it competently.

    Four-Day Planet | Henry Beam Piper