go away

Formsgoes away, going away, went away, gone away

1. 1
   order to leaveinterjection

   Used as a command telling someone to leave.

   Go away! Can't you see I'm busy?

   "Go away," she groaned, pulling the blanket over her head when her brother knocked again.

   Note

   On its own it makes a complete sentence and a blunt dismissal, usually spoken in annoyance and often followed by the reason: Go away! Stop annoying me! Inside a longer sentence, as in the salesman finally went away, it is no longer a command but the ordinary verb of leaving a place.

2. 2
   leave a placephrasal verbintransitive

   To leave a place; to depart from where one is.

   I wish those reporters would go away and leave the family in peace.

   The salesman finally went away after I shut the door on him.

   Similarleave, depart

   Oppositestay

   Note

   Unwelcome company is its usual subject, and it is often wished for rather than done: H. C. Casserley in Railway Magazine (1952) wished a group of schoolgirls would go away, and Hughes Mearns's Antigonish (1899) ends on "I wish, I wish he'd go away". With wish and would, it is the quiet, unspoken form of the blunt command.

3. 3
   disappearphrasal verbintransitive

   To stop being present or noticeable; to vanish or disappear.

   If the pain doesn't go away in a few days, call your doctor.

   By noon the fog had gone away and the whole valley lay in sunshine.

   Similardisappear, vanish, fade

   Oppositepersist, remain

   Note

   It often comes in the negative, for something unwelcome that persists: a cold that just won't go away, a need that has never gone away. Its subjects are things rather than people, such as pain, haze or fog, and it is a plainer, more everyday choice than vanish.

4. 4
   on vacationphrasal verbintransitive

   To leave home and travel somewhere, especially for a vacation.

   We're going away for a long weekend at the lake.

   Every August, my parents go away to the coast for two weeks.

   Note

   No destination is needed: Are you going away this year? asks about a holiday, and Will you be going away at the weekend? about a short trip, without naming a place. Away does the work a place name would, and the answer can simply be yes or no.

5. 5
   to prisonphrasal verbeuphemisticintransitive

   A softened way of saying that someone is going to prison to serve a sentence.

   Everyone in the courtroom knew he would go away for at least ten years.

   Her brother went away for stealing cars when she was twelve and came home a stranger.

   Note

   Prison is never named, which is the point: the phrase softens what is happening, and the context tells the listener where the person is going. A stretch of time usually comes with it, for a long time, for ten years, for life, and that time phrase is often what makes the meaning clear.

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