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

"Anything goes wrong on the M1 or the A421, this whole area is at a standstill... and then you want to put Universal Studios in the middle of that."

From BBC

In practice, almost anything goes.

From The Wall Street Journal

Anything that makes me feel like I’m just following my curiosity and I’m not working; I’m just following some trail that I don’t necessarily know where it’s leading — it’s hard to describe because the way I like to work is where anything goes.

From Los Angeles Times

“Do what you must, then. But keep an eye on those children, Miss Lumley. And if anything goes amiss, remember...you can always bring ’em to the vet.”

From Literature

Her last outing on a Broadway stage as a performer came in Kathleen Marshall’s 2011 Tony-winning revival of “Anything Goes,” starring Sutton Foster.

From Los Angeles Times