go by the board

verb

To fall or to go overboard; to be cast over the side of a ship.

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Meanings

verbgo by the board (third-person singular simple present goes by the board, present participle going by the board, simple past went by the board, past participle gone by the board)

present singular third person goes by the board · participle present going by the board · past went by the board · participle past gone by the board

  1. idiomaticnauticalTo fall or to go overboard; to be cast over the side of a ship.
  2. idiomaticTo be superseded, rejected, or obliterated; to pass by with little consequence; to amount to nothing.

    How many cups of tea I drank, because Dora made it, I don’t know. But, I perfectly remember that I sat swilling tea until my whole nervous system, if I had had any in those days, must have gone by the board.

    1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

go by the board. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20by%20the%20board

MLA

“go by the board.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20by%20the%20board. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “go by the board,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20by%20the%20board.

Source: go by the board on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.