go places
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To achieve success or make progress
Literally: move to different locations
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
So, I hope she goes places, I really do because young members and young trade unionists in this union are gon na get this union's support so, go back to your branches and tell everybody that.
‘ Music that's right for the time,’ butts in drummer John (yes, the drummer — you can tell a band is going places when even the stick - head looks good and demands to have his say).
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “go places” mean?
To achieve success or make progress Literally: move to different locations
Is “go places” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.