go without saying


Be self-evident, a matter of course. For example, It goes without saying that success is the product of hard work. This expression is a translation of the French cela va sans dire. [Second half of 1800s]

Words Nearby go without saying

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use go without saying in a sentence

  • We go to-morrow morning to Torquay for a month, and I can't bear to go without saying a word of farewell to you.

  • He's thinking now that I let him go without saying good-bye!

    The Boy with Wings | Berta Ruck
  • She put her arm in his and asked him, laughing, whether he thought she would let him go without saying good-bye.

    The Precipice | Ivan Goncharov
  • When the day came for Jennie's departure she had to go without saying farewell to her father.

    Jennie Gerhardt | Theodore Dreiser
  • The moment was not a propitious one for speaking to her; yet Gregory felt that he could not go without saying good-bye.

    Tante | Anne Douglas Sedgwick