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Glite Dictionary
to go commando

to go commando

3 9.1
To not wear underwear under your clothes
  • phrasal verb
  • /ɡoʊ kəˈmændoʊ/
  • NSFW
: ir sin ropa interior
  • I'm feeling adventurous today, so I decided to go commando under my jeans.
  • girls going commando

First of all, I'm going commando just like I always do.

Examples

  • Okay, I guess we're goin' commando, then.

    After We Collided (2020)

  • First of all, I'm going commando just like I always do.

    LOL Podcast

  • Get ready to go commando!

    Woody Woodpecker (2017)

  • Regardless, this Native girl is ready to go commando.

    Blog text (9)

  • I hope you're going commando.

    American Royalty (2022)

  • The Hammster goes commando, huh?

    Blog text (12)

  • You know, I got to go commando today because someone ripped off my favorite pair of panties last night.

    Magic Mike (2012)

  • Bob just went commando!

    Central Intelligence (2016)

  • All of Jay's underwear was in the washing machine, so we made him go commando in blue jeans.

    Blog text (19)

  • It is basically a known fact that Jon Hamm goes commando in his everyday life.

    Blog text (12)

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

go + commando

The meaning 'to not wear underwear' cannot be derived from 'go' (become) plus 'commando' because 'commando' does not literally mean 'without underwear' in its core lexical sense (it normally refers to a soldier or a military unit). This is a slang/idiomatic use whose meaning is unpredictable from the parts and would not be inferable by a B1 learner who only knows the literal constituents.

Etymology

Go commando may come from soldiers called commandos who sometimes skipped underwear to stay cool and move more easily in the field. So the phrase came to mean 'to not wear any underwear under your clothes'.