go strong

Combination of go and strong (adverb). The adverb was formed of Old English strong + -e; compare strongly.

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

1. To do well; to succeed.
   • 1851, Gayhurst, “Olla Podrida”, in Sporting Magazine‎^[1], volume 18, page 103:

     Merry Peal is a very smart mare […] and Breba reminds us very much of Mendicant, whose owner bred her. Badly as she was cut up in the Oaks, she was going strong and well in the Vase, when she rolled over.

   • 1954 May, John W. Grant, “A Railway Requiem”, in Railway Magazine, page 351:

     On the Great North of Scotland section, always a stronghold of four-coupled engines, a great number of small 4-4-0s, some over fifty years old, were still going strong in 1945, but serious inroads are being made into their numbers now.

   • 1975 July, Alan Merrill, Jake Hooker, “I Love Rock 'n' Roll”, in I Love Rock 'n Roll‎^[2], performed by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, published January 1982:

     I saw him dancin' there by the record machine
     I knew he must've been about 17
     The beat was goin' strong
     Playin' my favorite song

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 65:

     The new sea wall may stop the waves from the sea, but not from the children who enthusiastically greet our train as it passes. It's great to see this ages-old habit is still going strong.

Chiefly used in the present participle: going strong.

• “go strong”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “be going strong”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “going strong”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “going strong” (US) / “going strong” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.