go with the flow
go with the flow verb: to act as others are acting, conforming to common behavior patterns with an attitude of calm acceptance.
Verb
go with the flow (third-person singular simple present goes with the flow, present participle going with the flow, simple past went with the flow, past participle gone with the flow)
- To act as others are acting, conforming to common behavior patterns with an attitude of calm acceptance.
- “Look, you know, I go with the flow based on what the campaign wants to do,” Priebus told NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think Kellyanne is doing a phenomenal job. I don’t know Steve Bannon, to tell you the truth, very well.”2016 August 28, Tom McCarthy, quoting Reince Priebus, “Reince Priebus on Trump campaign hires: ‘I go with the flow’”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- blow with the wind, float with the stream
- Antonyms:
- go against the flow
Synonyms of go with the flow
Antonyms
- go against the flow
Forms of go with the flow
| third-person singular present | goes with the flow |
|---|---|
| present participle | going with the flow |
| past | went with the flow |
| past participle | gone with the flow |
Origin of go with the flow
Here, flow is used in the sense of "direction of movement."
Questions about go with the flow
- What does go with the flow mean?
- Go with the flow means to act as others are acting, conforming to common behavior patterns with an attitude of calm acceptance.
- What part of speech is go with the flow?
- Go with the flow is a verb.
- What is the past tense of go with the flow?
- The past tense of go with the flow is went with the flow.
Words near go with the flow in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: go with the flow (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-go with the flow.ogg.
Cite this entry: “go with the flow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_with_the_flow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
