smooth sailing

idiomatic phrase

: easy progress without impediment or difficulty

After the mix-up was rectified, it was smooth sailing again.

—Mike Brown

He just kept talking and talking his nonstop sunny talk about what a great summer we were going to have and that he had tons of plans and that we would get caught up as father and son and soon all our rough past would be behind us and we would have nothing but smooth sailing for our future.

—Jack Ganto

Examples of smooth sailing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Ryan Coogler’s first Black Panther picked up 7 Oscars noms and took over $1 billion at the box office but the film’s production, lead actor Lupita Nyong’o explained this afternoon during a London Film Screen talk, wasn’t smooth sailing. —Zac Ntim, Deadline, 14 Oct. 2024

Having a space company next door hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. —Henry Gass, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Oct. 2024

The couple had flown to Gibraltar expecting smooth sailing — and even Stöterau's father was surprised to learn his birth certificate was not an original. —Susan Young, People.com, 1 Oct. 2024

But Faye’s time in power hasn’t been smooth sailing. —Yasmeen Serhan, TIME, 2 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1824, in the meaning defined above