Link Centre Dictionary

plain sailing

plain·sai·ling

US/ˌpleɪn ˈseɪlɪŋ/ uncommon

noun

1.

easy unobstructed progress

  • “after we solved that problem the rest was plain sailing”

Origin

From plain (adjective) + sailing. Sense 2 of plain sailing (“something that is easy, simple, or straightforward”, noun) is attested slightly later than the adjective, and so could have been derived from it.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.