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Glite Dictionary
to go all goo-goo

to go all goo-goo

9.9
To act silly and very loving when you see something cute
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : ponerse meloso
  • Whenever she sees a baby animal, she goes all goo-goo and starts cooing.

Examples

  • He went all goo-goo over his girlfriend's romantic note.

  • Did you see how he goes all goo-goo when he sees kittens?

  • Don’t go all goo-goo just because you got a compliment from your boss.

  • Look at her going all goo-goo over that baby!

  • Whenever she sees a baby animal, she goes all goo-goo and starts cooing.

  • Look at her going all goo-goo over that baby!

  • Did you see how he goes all goo-goo when he sees kittens?

Synonyms

to gush over
vsto go all goo-goo
4 7.0

Praise a person or thing in a very excited way

acts silly and overly affectionate especially when reacting to something cute
to fall all over
vsto go all goo-goo
  • Informal
1 7.6

To praise or thank someone too much and show strong liking for them

focuses on silly overly affectionate behavior especially when reacting to something cute
gushing
vsto go all goo-goo
6.6

Giving praise in a way that sounds too excited and not honest

shows silly excessive affection especially as a reaction to something cute

Antonyms

reserved
3.7

Not willing to show feelings or talk much

How Affectionate

to swoon
27 7.7
to go all goo-goo
  • Informal
9.9
to coo
3 5.5
to smile
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

go all goo-goo infinitive
going all goo-goo present participle
goes all goo-goo third person singular
went all goo-goo past
gone all goo-goo past participle

Morphology

go + all + goo-goo

Although the pattern 'go all X' transparently signals a change into a state, the critical element 'goo-goo' is baby-talk/onomatopoeic and not semantically analyzable from known lexical parts. A B1 learner who knows 'go' and 'all' but not the idiomatic sense of 'goo-goo' cannot derive 'behave silly or excessively affectionate', so the expression is unpredictable and language-specific.

Etymology

The phrase go all goo-goo comes from the soft baby-talk sounds like goo-goo ga-ga that people make for infants. When someone 'goes all goo-goo' they behave like a person who coos and smiles at something cute, so it means 'to behave in a silly or very affectionate way'.