go the distance

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go the distance (third-person singular simple present goes the distance, present participle going the distance, simple past went the distance, past participle gone the distance)

1. (boxing) To participate in a boxing match for its maximum number of rounds.
   • 1915, Jack London, chapter 20, in The Little Lady of the Big House:

     "In a way it's like the quality of muscle and heart that enables some prizefighters to go the distance—twenty, thirty, forty rounds, say," Dick concurred.

   • 1976 November 21, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, Rocky:

     It really don't matter if this guy opens my head, even, cause I all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, seein' that bell ring and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) To have the endurance to see a difficult, sustained challenge to its natural end without faltering.
   • 1920, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 4, in The Devil's Paw:

     "Do you notice how every one is trying to avoid the subject of the war? . . . I am sure they cannot keep it up."

     "They won't go the distance," Julian whispered.

   • 2013 Oct. 18, Chad Bray, "HSBC to Appeal $2.46 Billion Judgment," New York Times (retrieved 23 June 2014):

     “We are very pleased that we went the distance in this case, all the way through a jury trial, and that we were able to obtain such a tremendous recovery for shareholders.”