To attack. [It is curious that the phrase should bear two opposite meanings.]
1838. I say that it is a gross, rank, palpable fraud. And I go for the fraud.—Mr. Roane of Virginia, in the U.S. Senate, April 23: Cong. Globe, p. 312, Appendix.
a. 1870. And he went for that heathen Chinee.—F. Bret Harte, ‘That Heathen Chinee.’
1888. I went for Tom, and got my stolen money back.—Mrs. Custer, ‘Tenting on the Plains,’ p. 289.
[See also Notes and Queries, 10 S. i. 225, 272.]
