go for broke
verb
Forms goes for broke going for broke went for broke gone for broke
- verb To wager everything.
- verb (idiomatic) To try everything possible or do every last thing possible in a final attempt.
Etymology
From Hawaiian Pidgin craps slang, meaning “to wager everything on one roll”: one would be broke, i.e. bankrupt, if one lost.
Popularized by the movie Go for Broke! (1951), which is named for the 442nd Infantry Regiment’s unit motto.
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “go for broke”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details