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Glite Dictionary
to go high

to go high

8.1
Respond calmly and respectfully to an attack instead of fighting back
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : mantenerse por encima
  • When faced with criticism, she chose to go high and remain respectful instead of engaging in a petty argument.

Examples

  • Despite the insults, she always aims to go high and respond gracefully to negativity.

  • He decided to go high and remain calm during the heated discussion, demonstrating his strong character.

  • So in the in the primaries campaign that we did very early on, some of the students, one of the students says when we go high, we go low in the polls.

Synonyms

to take the high road
vsto go high
22 5.9

To do the right thing and not respond angrily

focuses on refusing to retaliate after unfair or negative treatment

Antonyms

to retaliate
105 7.3

To hurt someone because they hurt you

to stoop
11 8.1

To lower yourself by doing something you think is wrong

How Dignified

to go high
8.1
to keep one's cool
  • Informal
30 3.4

Surface Forms

go high infinitive
went high past
gone high past participle
going high present participle
goes high third person singular

Morphology

go + high

The sense 'respond with dignity and not retaliate' is a metaphorical extension of 'go' (enter a state) + 'high' (elevated), so there is a loose compositional link to the constituents but the specific moral/political use (the ‘moral high ground’) is not literally predictable from the words. Many languages have similar metaphors (e.g. 'take the high road' / 'rise above'), so learners may infer something, but a B1 learner who only knows the literal meanings is unlikely to fully derive the intended pragmatic sense without prior exposure.

Etymology

Go high comes from a famous speech that used the line 'when they go low, we go high'. Imagine someone behaving badly and going down while you rise up and stay respectful; that's why go high means 'to respond with respect and not fight back'.