go against

phrasal verb

went against; gone against; going against; goes against

: to not agree with (something)

I won't do anything that goes against my conscience/beliefs/principles.

values that go against those of society

: to oppose (someone or something)

He was surprised when some of his former supporters went against him.

He was reluctant to go against his parents' wishes.

: to compete against (a player or team) in a contest or game

The Red Sox will be going against the Yankees in tonight's game.

: to not be good for (someone) : to not produce the result that is wanted by (someone)

Everything seemed to be going against her but she didn't give up hope.

The verdict went against the defendant.

Examples of go against in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The lack of an official narrative has left room for onlookers to craft their own theories about what’s going on behind closed doors—going against many of the golden rules of PR and communications strategy, experts say. —

Sydney Lake, Fortune, 20 Mar. 2024 Russia has a global leadership role in space governance and was a key negotiator in the Outer Space Treaty, and going against that would be self-undermining. —

Georgina Torbet, The Verge, 19 Mar. 2024 As vision statements go, Michael’s formulation could go against anything created by McKinsey and their consultants. —

Alexander Puutio, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 The strike went against the interests of the domestically focused PMF groups, such as Badr or Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which benefit from the status quo in Baghdad and want to minimize any regional escalation that could jeopardize their domestic power. —

Renad Mansour, Foreign Affairs, 26 Mar. 2024 Cellar Dweller will look to keep the upsets going against surprising newcomer, No. 2 Crazy Norse (Barleycorn’s) in the Sweet 16. —

The Enquirer, 21 Mar. 2024 But ultimately, those films went against his best instincts (recovered in his 2016 Come Together holiday commercial for H&M). —

Armond White, National Review, 15 Mar. 2024 Lucre first came to national attention last July when Elon Musk personally intervened to reinstate his account despite the fact that Lucre posted child exploitation images just days earlier, going against company policy. —

David Gilbert, WIRED, 11 Mar. 2024 Pushing past fears or powerful messages that define us and going against societal constraints is not painless. —

Lizz Schumer, Peoplemag, 9 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'go against.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.