anything goes

Idioms  

1. Everything is permitted, as in You're wearing sneakers to the office?—Why not? Anything goes these days. This idiom began life as everything goes, which appeared in George Meredith's novel The Egoist (1879). In America anything was the preferred word, which gained further currency with Cole Porter's use of the term as the title of his 1934 song and musical comedy, Anything Goes!

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Example Sentences

Throughout his career, Soderbergh has sought out new technology and filmmaking techniques to play around with, lending his work an exciting sandbox quality where anything goes.

From Salon • Apr. 17, 2026

“And high asset prices, which certainly feel good in the short run, create additional risk if anything goes wrong,” Dimon says.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026

The moment anything goes wrong, the doomsaying around the club reaches frenetic levels rarely seen outside the New York Mets.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 1, 2026

"That if anything goes wrong politically, Nigeria must take responsibility," Anshuur said.

From BBC • Jan. 8, 2026

With these conditionals, anything goes: you can use pretty much any tense in the if and then clauses, depending only on when the relevant events take place or are discovered.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker