View synonyms for no-go

no-go

or no go

[ noh-goh ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

, Informal.

not authorized or approved to proceed; canceled or aborted:
The Tuesday space launch is no-go.
not ready to go or proceed.
not functioning properly; inoperative:
The ticket machine was no-go.
(of an area) having restricted entry:
hazardous no-go zones.

, Informal.

a plan or idea that is canceled, rejected, or otherwise fails to be realized:
We asked to borrow the car, but that was a no-go, so we’ll have to take the bus.

Origin of no-go¹

First recorded in 1865–70

“Swaths of the north are no-go areas,” said an executive at a leading oil company.

One night, in the police no-go area of Barrowfield, I walked out with a convicted killer.

Secure the border; ceding a no-go zone to foreign drug lords on American territory is not acceptable.

To a young artist in the 1980s, the SoHo galleries that mattered seemed an unreachable territory, a no-go land.

Now he was ready to put those Herculean shoulders at any other bemired and rickety no-go-cart.

April 23, 2024inveterate

[in-vet-er-it ]

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

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