to go by the board
1
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
quedar en el olvido
- Anything that really does some good can go back into an Office of Education under the Department of Health and Human Services, which can go back to its old name of Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; anything that is just providing employment for government careerists and political hangers-on should go by the board.
Examples
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When the new regulations were introduced, several previously agreed policies went by the board.
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... it's like they say in the Marine Corps in battle: once the first round has been fired, all battle plans go by the board.
Blog text (16) -
Without the dogma, this kind of relativity goes by the board.
Academic text (2001) -
That tactic will increasingly go by the boards if Amazon adopts a strategy it's considering of offering same-day delivery in some areas, which would require more warehouses in more states.
Blog text (10) -
During the meeting, many important suggestions went by the board as the team focused on unresolved issues.
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If we ignore the budget constraints, our original plans will quickly go by the board.
Antonyms
How Likely
Surface Forms
Morphology
go + by + the + board
The sense 'to be rejected or disregarded' is not directly derivable from the literal meanings of 'go' (move), 'by' (near), 'the', and 'board' (a plank or committee). The expression is idiomatic (likely nautical in origin) and requires knowledge of a historical/metaphorical shift that a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not predict, so it is not transparently compositional.
Etymology
Go by the board comes from old sailors. When something was thrown over a ship's side it literally went past the board and was lost, so the phrase now means 'rejected' or 'ignored'.