trim one's sails
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Modify one's stand, adapt to circumstances, as in His advisers told him to trim his sails before he alienated voters and bungled the election completely. This metaphoric expression alludes to adjusting a ship's sails to take full advantage of prevailing winds. [Late 1700s]
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The rainy weather could not ________ my elated spirits on my graduation day.
Words nearby trim one's sails
trimmer, trimmer arch, trimming, trimodal, trimolecular, trim one's sails, trimonthly, trimorph, trimorphism, trimotor, trim rail
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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