to go along to get along
3
8.2
- idiom
:
seguir la corriente
- At this juncture, we absolutely cannot afford to go along to get along.
- just go along to get along
Much safer to go along to get along, and people will often just go along.
- Much safer to go along to get along, and people will often just go along.
- When somebody is obsequious, they are, you know, sort of going along to get along.
- We shouldn't go along with friends going along to get along right as the proverb goes.
Examples
-
You know, go along to get along, play it safe, make no waves.
-
How about standing up for what you believe in instead of just going along to get along?
Blog text (28) -
So, students quickly learn how to go along to get along.
Academic text (1998) -
In our society, to a great extent, we follow the principle of "going along to get along."
Blog text (33) -
As most people become adults, they learn to compromise, to go along to get along, and to "settle."
Blog text (34) -
While it is a dictum in Washington that "you have to go along to get along," it is not the way to lead.
Blog text (15) -
But you can't just go along to get along, to give the appearance that you are one of the boys.
Blog text (1) -
Go along to get along -- that's the way it is.
Academic text (1995) -
Imposing a litmus test of collegiality rewards young professors who "go along to get along" rather than expressing independent scholarly judgment.
Academic text (2003) -
To avoid arguments, she decided to go along to get along with the team's decisions.
Synonyms
543
3.3
To work together with other people to reach the same goal
144
3.5
To pretend to agree with someone to avoid trouble
54
4.2
To agree or pretend to agree to avoid trouble
18
4.3
To follow rules or other people after not wanting to at first
Antonyms
How Cooperative
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression strings together two phrasal-verb senses: 'go along' (to agree or conform) and 'get along' (to have harmonious relations), forming a clear causal pattern 'do X in order to achieve Y'. However, understanding depends on recognizing those phrasal-verb meanings rather than just the literal words, so the relation is partly predictable but not fully transparent to a B1 learner who only knows the individual word meanings.
Etymology
Go along to get along comes from a simple picture: if you go along with the group—walking the same way or agreeing with others—you will get along with them and be accepted. So, it means 'to act like others to avoid conflict' or 'keep the peace'.