anything goes

Idioms and Phrases

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!