To play higher. A phrase taken from the game of poker.
1859. The Democrats have a Pacific Railroad in their platform, and it is no harm for you to take one on board. As this seems to be a game for the Presidency, and a brag game at that, I think the American party, if they have a platform at all, ought to go two better, and go in for building all three roads.—Mr. Thompson of Kentucky, U.S. Senate, Feb. 16: Cong. Globe, p. 1058.
1878. As soon as he conceited what was up, he gathered a dornick, and was just drawin’ back to send the strange dog where they’s no fleas, when the stranger saw him and went one better.—J. H. Beadle, ‘Western Wilds,’ p. 185.
1909. Dickens satirized [the high falutin’ style of talk], Proctor Knott made himself famous by going it several better, but the thing has not been killed.—N.Y. Evening Post, Jan. 25.
1910. The incident illustrates once more the way in which the battleship obsession still maintains its hold. Argentina has to see the Brazilian navy and go it one or two better.—Id., Feb. 28.
