Plain-sailing

//ˌpleɪn ˈseɪlɪŋ// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Easy, simple, straightforward. not-comparable

    "[…] I took an uncommon fancy to him. He's a straightforward, plain-sailing fellow. I shall be very glad to see him again."

Synonyms

All synonyms
as a duck takes to waterbasiceasyeasy as 123easy as abceasy as cake

Example

More examples

"[…] I took an uncommon fancy to him. He's a straightforward, plain-sailing fellow. I shall be very glad to see him again."

Etymology

From plain (adjective) + sailing. Sense 2 of plain sailing (“something that is easy, simple, or straightforward”, noun) is attested slightly later than the adjective, and so could have been derived from it.

Related phrases

plain sailing

More for "plain-sailing"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.