Idioms

plain sailing

This page is about the idiom plain sailing

Meaning

If something is plain sailing, it's very easy to do and there are no problems to overcome.

For example

  • Golfer Tiger Woods hit a couple of bad shots early in his round, but it was plain sailing after that and he won the match easily.

  • I answered the first few questions in the exam without any problems, and I knew it'd be plain sailing from then on.

Origin: From sailing, in which plain sailing means to sail at good speed without facing any obstacles.

Quick Quiz

We drove to Paris, and after getting out of London it was plain sailing all the way because

a. there was hardly any traffic

b. it rained so much it was flooding

c. we had a strong westerly tailwind
a) there was hardly any traffic b) it rained so much it was flooding c) we had a strong westerly tailwind

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Common English Idioms

Contributor: Matt Errey