extremely enthusiastic and enterprising, sometimes to excess
extremely keen to participate in military combat
Introduced as a training slogan in 1942 by U.S. Marine officer Evans F. Carlson (1896–1947), from Chinese gōng hé, the abbreviated name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, taken by a literal translation as “work together”
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Scotland cannot be gung-ho, but they have to be more threatening than they have been in their two games in America and in the six that went before in their last two European Championship campaigns.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Calling on him to be gung-ho from the get-go against Morocco, or Brazil, is deeply flawed because that's exactly what those teams want Scotland to do.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
Isabelle Bousquette: Three years into the AI boom, it seems like corporate America is more gung-ho on this than ever.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 2025
Not all of the younger generation of Robleses is as gung-ho about the family business as their parents are.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
It was weird how responsible he felt for the other two: plaintive, pitiful, confused Chip; naïve, gung-ho, enthusiastic Katherine.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
“You’re hard pressed to find a market where developers and investors are gung ho on apartments.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
Other researchers are less gung ho about such heady prospects.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 10, 2023
He said the ranks include people who are gung ho and supremely fit, but also more ordinary people.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 14, 2023
“Consistent with my own push for statehood, of course I was gung ho about giving this authority back to the District,” she said.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 31, 2021
But voting booths aside, I worried I'd be betraying my Iranian side if I was too gung ho about becoming fully Americanized.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
