by the seat of your pants

[halong08]

In searching for idioms, I came across "by the seat of your pants" on this website. The definition given is to "do it without help from anyone." As a native American English speaker, I have used this idiom often. My definition is "to do something without advance preparation." I asked several fellow native American English speakers their definition of this idiom and they agreed with me. Any native English speakers agree with this website definition of "by the seat of your pants?"

[susiedqq]

Your interpretation and usage is correct.

Sometimes you just have to let other people be wrong

[Brian Boyd]

I've also heard that use of 'doing something by the seat of your pants' ... to do it without any preparation, winging it, making it up as you go along.

For me, another use is to achieve something, but by a narrow margin.

I got to work on time by the seat of my pants. (2 more minutes and I would have been late)

She escaped by the seat of her pants. (she wasn't hurt, but the dog very nearly caught her)

Brian

COMICS for ESL students ... Grammarman Comic

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[Tdol]

Thank you- corrected.