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Glite Dictionary
to go places

to go places

12 3.7
Become successful or important in life
  • phrasal verb
  • /ɡoʊ ˈpleɪsɪz/
  • Informal
translation icon : llegar lejos
  • With her talent and hard work, she is sure to go places in her career.
  • really going places
  • want to go places
  • see you're going places

It's, it's proof that the work that I'm doing is going places I never imagined it would go.

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Examples

  • We're going places.

    That Brennan Girl (1946)

  • He'd been a dreamer once, a schemer, a man really going places.

    Blog text (28)

  • You win this thing, you and me, we're going places.

    Surf's Up (2007)

  • To go places, to really go places, you gotta have imagination.

    The Lords of Flatbush (1974)

  • I'm going places,' she always told me.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • "I'm glad you think my life is going places," I told her, "because sometimes I'm not sure where."

    Fiction book (1995)

  • My grandma would always tell me, "You're going to go places with your life."

    Academic text (2006)

  • The kid might be able to go places as a broadcaster someday.

    Blog text (32)

  • You are going places.

    Roadkill (1989)

  • You're going places, kid.

    Monte Carlo (2011)

Synonyms

to go far
vsto go places
42 3.2

To become very successful or important in a career

describes success or popularity without implying great prominence
to make it big
vsto go places
  • Informal
18 4.1

Become very successful in a job or career

means success or popularity across life or fields, not only in one profession
to move up in the world
vsto go places
7 4.5

To get more successful and reach a higher social or economic position

focuses on success or popularity rather than on social or economic rise

Antonyms

to fail
898 1.0

Not succeed in doing something you wanted to do

How Successful

to go places
  • Informal
12 3.7
to do well
520 1.2
to get by
121 3.1

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

go + place

Although 'go' (move) + 'places' (locations) have clear literal meanings, the sense 'to achieve success' is a metaphorical extension (progress as movement) that is not directly predictable from the constituents; a B1 learner who only knows the words would likely assume literal movement and might not infer the career/success meaning without prior exposure. The movement→progress metaphor is cross-linguistically common, which gives partial cues, so the expression is partly transparent but still requires familiarity for full understanding.

Etymology

Go places comes from the picture of someone literally going to many important places, moving from small towns to big cities or better jobs. That's why when we say someone 'goes places' we mean they will become 'successful' or 'important'.