Steady as she goes

When we're going to continue doing the same thing for a period of time, we say steady as she goes. It comes from the days of sailing ships.
It’s steady as she goes until something changes.

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English Phrase: Steady-as-she-goes

The phrase steady as she goes originally comes from sailing ships.

Sailing ships change direction often – it’s called tacking – to catch the changing winds.

There’s no need to change from time to time because the wind is not changing direction; in these cases, the captain would order steady as she goes, and the ship would not change course for a while.

This is how the expression is used today.


When we are going to continue doing the same thing for some time, we use this phrase.


For example, Business has been going well recently; it’s steady as she goes until the situation changes.

Oh, I almost forgot. You may be wondering who ‘she’ is or why ‘she’ is used in the phrase.

In English, any ship, boat, spacecraft, etc., that helps to preserve life is referred to as female.

Even if a ship has a male name, it is still referred to by its crewmembers with the female pronoun.


This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).  

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 77.  

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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