go for broke

From Hawaiian Pidgin craps slang, meaning “to wager everything on one roll”: one would be broke, i.e. bankrupt, if one lost.^[1]

Popularized by the movie Go for Broke! (1951), which is named for the 442nd Infantry Regiment’s unit motto.

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

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

1. To wager everything.
2. (idiomatic) To try everything possible or do every last thing possible in a final attempt.
   • 1931 September 19, "Loui", “Want a Lot of Action? See Barefoot Games”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin‎, Honolulu, HI, page 11:

     These shoeless gladiators "shoot the works" or as they themselves term it "go for broke" in each game. They battle for every inch ...

   • 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

     Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
     With a thousand screamin' trucks
     An' eleven long-haired Friends a' Jesus
     In a chartreuse microbus.

   • 2024 January 10, Howard Johnston, “Launched for enthusiasts - now it's for everyone”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 29:

     Going for broke, the BRB said that Edinburgh-Aberdeen and Hull-Doncaster-Leeds should be considered [for electrification], along with Plymouth-Penzance and Crewe-Holyhead, all to be in place by 2001. Norman Fowler's reply was short and to the point: Sorry, no.

   • 2024 May 30, Renato Mariotti, “How Trump’s Team Blew It”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     But Mr. Trump’s team went for broke, deciding not to seek a jury instruction that would have permitted jurors to find that Mr. Trump committed a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

• go all out
• go for it
• go for the burn
• here goes nothing