Go the Extra Mile
“Go the extra mile” means making more effort than expected. The expression belongs to a documented biblical allusion family: Matthew 5:41 supplies the older “go a mile…with him twain” image, while archival research reports explicit “go the extra mile” wording in 1901.
It means to make more effort than is expected. The modern wording is linked to the much older Matthew 5:41 image of going beyond one compelled mile; archival phrase research reports an explicit “go the extra mile” use in 1901, so the biblical predecessor and the modern wording are recorded separately.
Key details
What the evidence supports
The exact phrase “go the extra mile” appears verbatim in the King James Bible.
The KJV supplies the one-mile/two-mile image, but not the exact modern wording “go the extra mile.”
Documented timeline
- 1611 KJV wording
Biblical mile image directly inspected
Matthew 5:41 in the King James Bible says that if compelled to go a mile, one should go “with him twain.”
- 1901
Exact modern wording reported
Word Histories reports “go the extra mile” in a Cambridge Chronicle sermon explicitly based on Matthew 5:41.
Variants
Directly inspected KJV wording underlying the distance metaphor.
Specialist research reports this wording as an intermediate allusive form.
Exact modern idiom reported by 1901 and reflected in current dictionary usage.
Further guidance
Biblical Predecessor
The King James text of Matthew 5:41 directly contains the image “go a mile, go with him twain.” That is a predecessor image, not the exact modern idiom.
Chronology boundary
The engine distinguishes the scriptural source image, intermediate “second mile” wording, and the later exact modern phrase rather than assigning all three the same date.
Meaning
Cambridge defines the idiom as making more effort than is expected.
Reported Modern Wording
Word Histories reports a 1901 Cambridge Chronicle sermon containing “go the extra mile” while explicitly discussing Matthew 5:41.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- GO THE EXTRA MILE definition (opens in a new tab)Cambridge Dictionary · Modern meaning
- Go The Extra Mile - Meaning & Origin (opens in a new tab)Phrase Finder · General historical dating and usage
- the biblical origin of “to go the extra mile” (opens in a new tab)Word Histories · Reported 1901 “go the extra mile” chronology and predecessor form
- Bible (King James) — Matthew 5:41 (opens in a new tab)King James Bible / Wikisource · Directly inspected predecessor wording: “go a mile, go with him twain”