to go with one's gut
1
7.2
- idiom
- Informal
:
seguir la intuición
- you just have to go with your gut.
Examples
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I'd say go with your gut.
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I go with my gut, and my gut tells me that this guy is El Macho.
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So, I have to go with my gut now.
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I gotta go with my gut on this.
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And in the fight game, you learn to go with your gut.
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You should go with your gut, man.
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Just go with your gut feeling.
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You've just got to suck it up and go with your gut.
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Go with your gut.
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In uncertain situations, it's often best to go with one's gut and trust your instincts.
Synonyms
3
8.5
To make quick decisions without a plan
1
5.3
Decide using your first feeling instead of thinking too much
To follow your natural feelings when making a decision
Act on a feeling that something is right without checking facts
Antonyms
How Intuitive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'go with' is compositional (meaning roughly 'follow' or 'accept'), but 'gut' is used metaphorically to mean 'instinct' or 'intuition' rather than the literal internal organ. Because the mapping from 'gut' to 'intuition' is a conventional metaphor that a B1 learner may not infer from the literal constituents without prior exposure—even though the overall idea 'follow an inner feeling' is somewhat guessable and appears cross-linguistically—the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Go with one's gut comes from the idea that your gut, the stomach, gives a quick feeling inside you when something seems right or wrong. So, to go with your gut means to act on that quick feeling, or 'trust your feelings', instead of thinking too much.