to get one's way
- phrasal verb
- Informal
- He needs to learn not to throw books through windows when he doesn't get his way.
Examples
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We're under the heel of a man who'll stop at nothing to get his way.
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Did you ever know her not get her way?
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you gotta hand it to her, she always gets her way.
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And... as usual Mark was about to get his way.
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He always found some way to get his way, you know?
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I think you'll find I usually get my way.
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She always gets her way.
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Then you know I'm stubborn, and I always get my way.
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Well if they got their way, we'd move heaps of paper around.
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After a long discussion, she managed to get her way and have the meeting postponed.
Synonyms
Allow someone to do or choose what they want
To get what you want even when other people disagree
Antonyms
How Successful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to achieve what one wants' is directly derivable from 'get' (to obtain) combined with 'one's way' (one's desired outcome or manner). This compositional interpretation is cross-linguistically common and follows normal English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will very likely infer the intended meaning (including the typical sense of succeeding despite opposition) from context.
Etymology
Get one's way comes from the image of someone pushing through a crowd to reach the path they want, so they get the way. So, to get one's way today means 'to achieve what one wants', even if others disagree.