anything goes

anything goes

All things are accepted or acceptable; nothing is off-limits. Street fights are especially dangerous because there are no rules to protect your safety—anything goes.
See also: anything, goes
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

anything goes

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!
See also: anything, goes
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

anything goes

there are no rules about acceptable behaviour or dress.
This phrase appeared earlier, in the late 19th century, as everything goes .
See also: anything, goes
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

anything ˈgoes

there are no rules about how somebody should behave; anything is acceptable: John always has to wear a suit and tie to the office, but where I work anything goes.
See also: anything, goes
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

anything goes

Anything is permissible or likely to be tolerated.
See also: anything, goes
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • turn out all right
  • work out all right
  • koshe
  • (something) is one thing, (something else) is (quite) another
  • it's one thing to (do sth), it's another thing to (do sth else)
  • it's one thing to (do sth), it's quite another to (do sth else)
  • it's one thing to do A, it's another to do B
  • it's one thing to (do something), it's another to (do something else)
  • lick someone or something into shape
  • whip (someone or something) into shape
References in periodicals archive
While filming Torchwood and performing live he has also found time to dictate his memoirs to his sister Carole for a biography, Anything Goes.
ACTOR John Barrowman will be in Cardiff to sign copies of his autobiography Anything Goes.
While half of Germany's 7,500-mile highway system has speed limits, the "anything goes" stretches of the autobahn are the world's fastest roads; one driver recently bragged about pushing his Porsche to 187 mph--the speed of a commercial jet taking off.
Teaching unions say that as parents are increasingly likely to sue if anything goes wrong, their members are unwilling to put their careers and reputations at risk.
Opposition parties on Monday blasted the decision by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier in the day to readmit 11 independent lawmakers it ousted last year over a policy dispute, saying that anything goes with the dominant party.
The panic--and there can be no other word that adequately describes what automakers have been experiencing on and off for the past 20 years--that has set in is such that anything goes in order to right the ship.
Anything Goes at a North East theatre next week as Jennifer Bradbury discovers
COLE PORTER'S Anything Goes hit the Empire Theatre in Liverpool last week, with Mickey Starke.
How to answer to history in a moment when "anything goes" remains a fundamental question, but it's the somewhat unexpected, unsentimental, and non-nostalgic "return" to those heroics that makes Martin's own investigation prepossessing, especially freshened with the bracing antiheroic potential of Agnes Martin, Ree Morton, and Mary Heilmann, and with the grubby energy of the street.
Breaking my back just to know your name Seventeen tracks and I've had it with this game I'm breaking my back just to know your name But heaven ain't close in a place like this Anything goes but don't blink you might miss Cause heaven ain'tclose in a place like this I said heaven ain't close in a place like this Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight Entries to: John Dingwall, Daily Record, One Central Quay, Glasgow G3 8DA or email j.dingwall@ dailyrecord.co.uk
If you can get to only one event at this year's Oregon Festival of American Music, "Anything Goes" might be the one to see.
They are now going to be screened and if found suitable, they can start wind testing within a couple of months (followed) by a whole round of environmental assessment before anything goes up."
In his introduction, Pawlak asserts that, because we live in an age when "the vocabulary and techniques of advertising have been appropriated to serve political agendas," one of the most important tasks of poetry is to "reclaim truth for language." Anything goes when it comes to format, and the street language and imagery match the ugly subject matter: "The muddy Mississippi with its chemical effluvia"; "My grandmother heavy with tumors"; a newborn baby who comes out looking like "2 pounds of soggy grapes." What the poems lack in prettiness, they make up for with gut-wrenching honesty and a dumpster full of righteous anger.
The trade show was conducted in the manner that trade shows should be conducted--free beer for all, and anything goes ...
Why not, if anything goes? The last chapter is on Paradise Lost, which Hopkins thinks erases Christ's mother in part because "Mary" evokes Catholic queens.