Word.ws English Dictionary

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)

  1. (idiomatic) 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
    Antonyms:
    go against the flow

Synonyms of go with the flow

Antonyms

Forms of go with the flow

third-person singular presentgoes with the flow
present participlegoing with the flow
pastwent with the flow
past participlegone 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

  1. go wild
  2. go Winchester
  3. go with
  4. go with a swing
  5. go with one's gut
  6. go with the flow
  7. go with the flow of traffic
  8. go with the territory
  9. go with the turf
  10. go with the wind
  11. go without

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.