All over, red rover

This expression signifying the end of something (most commonly in a sporting context) derives from the children’s game of British Bulldogs where individual children must cross or break through a line of defending children called bulldogs. Children who fail to break through the line then join the other bulldogs in defending the line. The game could get quite rough. Consequently, it has been banned in many schools during recent years. The game was originally developed in Britain during the 19th century and spread to other Commonwealth countries and to the United States, where it was also known as Red Rover. This stems from the custom where children call out from the defending line, “Red rover, red rover, send (name of the child) over”. When the last child failed to break the line, the game was acknowledged to be all over, giving rise to the expression all over, red rover, which owes much of its popularity and cachet to the rhyming.