Word.ws English Dictionary

go through the motions

go through the motions verb: to do something in a mechanical, unreflective manner, especially as a matter of routine and without commitment or enthusiasm; to perform a task perfunctorily.

Verb

go through the motions (third-person singular simple present goes through the motions, present participle going through the motions, simple past went through the motions, past participle gone through the motions)

  1. (idiomatic) To do something in a mechanical, unreflective manner, especially as a matter of routine and without commitment or enthusiasm; to perform a task perfunctorily.
    • Aleck was a Christian from the cradle, and duty and the force of habit required her to go through the motions.1905, Mark Twain, chapter 3, in The $30,000 Bequest
    • They went through the motions of living, but they didn't live.1919, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, chapter 15, in Rainbow Valley, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, →OCLC

Forms of go through the motions

third-person singular presentgoes through the motions
present participlegoing through the motions
pastwent through the motions
past participlegone through the motions

Questions about go through the motions

What does go through the motions mean?
Go through the motions means to do something in a mechanical, unreflective manner, especially as a matter of routine and without commitment or enthusiasm; to perform a task perfunctorily.
What part of speech is go through the motions?
Go through the motions is a verb.
What is the past tense of go through the motions?
The past tense of go through the motions is went through the motions.

Words near go through the motions in the dictionary

  1. go through hell
  2. go through hoops
  3. go through the attitudes
  4. go through the gears
  5. go through the mill
  6. go through the motions
  7. go through the trouble
  8. go through with
  9. go to
  10. go to bat
  11. go to bed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go through the motions (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-go through the motions.ogg.

Cite this entry: “go through the motions.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_through_the_motions. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.