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

Things appeared to be smooth sailing for the pair until it was revealed that Lauren, 31, had been seeing a man before coming on the show — and Dave's inner circle happened to know him. —Joelle Goldstein, People.com, 1 Mar. 2025

Despite his party comfortably topping polls, his campaign has not been all smooth sailing. —Sophie Tanno, CNN, 16 Feb. 2025

Rub a dry bar of soap along the teeth, and voilà—smooth sailing. —Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 30 Jan. 2025

To ensure smooth sailing through the complex system, captains are required to surrender control to one of the ACP’s pilots for the journey of eight to 10 hours. —Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 20 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1824, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for smooth sailing

• assailing
• availing
• bewailing
• blackmailing
• curtailing
• derailing
• descaling
• detailing
• dovetailing
• entailing
• exhaling
• impaling