go along to get along

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

go along to get along (third-person singular simple present goes along to get along, present participle going along to get along, simple past went along to get along, past participle gone along to get along)

1. (idiomatic) To conform in order to have acceptance and security.
   • 1989, Stephen Hunter, The Day Before Midnight‎^[1], →ISBN, page 55:

     He also had a talent for the truth. He would tell it, regardless, a gift that did him little political good in the Army, where you had to go along to get along.

   • 2001 February 22, Andrew Finkel, Frank Pellegrini, “Can Turkey Be Plucked From Its Financial Meltdown?”, in Time:

     Sezer, meanwhile, was put up by the three-part coalition that was in power as a puppet, someone who would go along to get along. But like a Supreme Court Justice who doesn't vote the way you want, he's turned into a reformer.

   • 2011 May 18, Brett Arends, “Strauss-Kahn? Here’s the real IMF scandal”, in Wall Street Journal MarketWatch, retrieved 7 June 2011:

     Nobody wanted to speak out of turn. Nobody wanted to go against the prevailing wisdom. Everyone wanted to go along to get along. That’s how you got promoted in the IMF.

   • 2012 June 4, Emily VanDerWerff, “Mad Men: Commissions And Fees”, in AV Club, retrieved 27 September 2013:

     Don invented a myth of himself, then made it a reality, and he had the stupidity—or the intelligence—to never stop believing in the myth. Lane Pryce, a go-along-to-get-along guy if ever there was one, doesn’t have that myth. All he has is the ability to give and give and give until there’s nothing more to take.

See also

• fake it till one makes it
• move out to move up