smooth sailing

idiomatic phrase

: easy progress without impediment or difficulty

After the mix-up was rectified, it was smooth sailing again.

—Mike Brown

He just kept talking and talking his nonstop sunny talk about what a great summer we were going to have and that he had tons of plans and that we would get caught up as father and son and soon all our rough past would be behind us and we would have nothing but smooth sailing for our future.

—Jack Ganto

Examples of smooth sailing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The windy drive up to the helicopter’s launch pad takes about 25 minutes from the city center and was the only rocky part of the travels for anyone prone to motion sickness, but the rest of the experience was smooth sailing. —Sabrina Weiss, People.com, 24 June 2025

Here are four lessons e-commerce operators can implement (no million-dollar war chest required): Lesson 1: Forget About The Perfect Launch Your first launch most likely isn’t going to be smooth sailing. —Jon Stojan, Forbes.com, 9 June 2025

However, their relationship wasn't all smooth sailing outside of the pods. —Joelle Goldstein, People.com, 23 May 2025

The Pacers' playoff run thus far has been smooth sailing. —Ricardo Klein, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1824, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for smooth sailing

• assailing
• availing
• bewailing
• blackmailing
• curtailing
• derailing
• descaling
• detailing
• dovetailing
• entailing
• exhaling
• impaling