go to town

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

1. (idiomatic) To proceed enthusiastically, vigorously, or expertly.

   She really went to town with the party preparations.

   • 2014 November 12, Calum MacLeod, “As with 2008 Olympics, China spends big to look good”, in USA Today‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 November 2014‎:

     The greatest impact, good and bad, fell on the city's northeast suburbs, 60-plus minutes from the downtown Huairou district, a key APEC venue. Obama and other VIPs spent just seven hours there Tuesday, but Huairou went to town as perhaps only China can. The district spent about $4.9 billion preparing for APEC, according to state media including the Beijing Youth Daily and China Daily newspapers.

   • 2018 October 15, Steven Pye, “When Gary Lineker scored four goals to help England win 4-2 in Spain”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Never slow to bang the drum, the English press went to town, calling Lineker the “Matador of Madrid” and announcing that “Spain are Linekered.”

   • 2018 November, N. K. Jemisin, How Long 'til Black Future Month?‎, Hachette, →ISBN:

     The news channels had been the first to figure out that particular wrinkle, but the religions really went to town with it.

   • 2022 May 29, Tom Lamont, quoting Jim Howick, “‘We were always trying to push boundaries’: Jim Howick on breaking taboos, coping with life and the joy of dogs”, in The Observer‎, →ISSN:

     Oh, I went to town in the last lockdown, spent a lot of money on the paints, the brushes, the figurines for a game called Hero Quest.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go,‎ to,‎ town.

   Pa went to town to buy a new plough.

• go to work

• go to town on
• go all out
• have a field day

• Jonathon Green (2024) “go to town v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Eric Partridge (2005) “go to town”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1995.