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You and I go way back, have I ever let you down?

It's from a dialogue from House of Cards. Frank was trying to persuade someone to give him more time to deal with an issue at hand. My guess is "go back" means the two of them understand each other pretty well because the have a long history, and in this case the "someone" understands the capability of Frank from the past the have been through. Is this correct?

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    To mean, "go way back" doesn't imply that the two understand each other well. It just means they "know each other" for quite a long time.
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Dec 6, 2013 at 6:23

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When used between two persons, go back means having known each other for a length of time (sense #2.a). Putting way simply implies a longer duration.

So, here, it means that those two persons know each other for quite a long time.

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  • OED link is broken. Also you can look at this page, learnersdictionary.com/definition/go Go to "go back" definition 2b ("We go back 30 years")
    – Brandin
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 9:21
  • Oh, thanks. It seems they have reconstructed the entire dictionary! Corrected. @Brandin
    – Maulik V
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 9:28

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