to go it alone

26 5.3

To do something without help from other people

phrasal verb

Informal

: hacerlo por su cuenta

We've changed, we've embraced entrepreneurism, young people now want to go it alone, they want to run their own businesses, they want to be self-employed.
enough to go it alone

They're just, they're just, they're just seems to be men to seem to have an instinct for going it alone.

Examples

If I have to, I'll go it alone.

Contact (1997)
All right, you and Vince are gonna go it alone.

Chain Reaction (2006)
I told her I need to go it alone.

A Karate Christmas Miracle (2019)
From here on, I go it alone.

When a Stranger Calls (1979)
Well, if this thing gets much worse, you might have to go it alone.

Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (2000)
But as it was, I had to go it alone.

Fiction book (1998)
Do you want to go it alone out there?

Fiction book (1997)
We insisted on going it alone and lasted perhaps a month.

Fiction book (2002)
I wouldn't want to go it alone.

Judas (2004)
Sometimes, you need to go it alone to find your own path.

Synonyms

to fend for oneself

vsto go it alone

Informal

16 5.6

Look after yourself without help from others

is about doing a single task without help rather than ongoing self care or survival

to fly solo

vsto go it alone

Informal

14 4.8

To act or work alone without help from others

is used for any action done without help or support from others

to go one's own way

vsto go it alone

5 6.2

Choose your own path in life

is about doing a single action without help rather than long term life choices

to stand on one's own two feet

vsto go it alone

Informal

5 4.4

To support yourself without help from other people

is focused on doing a specific action without help rather than long term self support

under one's own steam

vsto go it alone

1 5.3

Using your own effort without help from others

is framed as simply acting without assistance, not stressing personal resources

off one's own bat

vsto go it alone

8.6

To do something without being asked or helped

is simply doing something without help rather than necessarily starting it unprompted

to lone it

vsto go it alone

9.9

To do something alone without help

is the neutral expression for doing something without help rather than casual speech

to plough a lonely furrow

vsto go it alone

9.9

To work alone on something despite difficulty or opposition

is used for doing something without help rather than enduring opposition or hardship

Antonyms

to collaborate

96 4.6

To work with other people to reach a shared goal

How Independent

to go it alone

Informal

26 5.3

to ask for help

98 1.0

to rely on

602 1.0

Surface Forms

go it alone infinitive

Morphology

go + it + alone

The meaning 'to do something without the help or support of others' is directly derivable from combining 'go' (to proceed/undertake) with 'alone' (by oneself); the pronoun 'it' here is a dummy filler and does not introduce an idiomatic sense. This compositional pattern (go alone / go it alone) is predictable and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand the MWE.

Etymology

Go it alone gives a clear picture of someone who goes alone, starting a task without help. One popular story says people used that image of acting by themselves, so today it means 'to do something without the help or support of others'.