follow suit

present singular third person follows suit · participle present following suit · participle past followed suit · past followed suit

1. card gamesTo play a card of the same suit as the previous or leading card.
2. idiomaticTo follow an example; to imitate or copy the actions of another.

   If you are not sure of the proper etiquette, watch what others do and follow suit.

   4 more examples

   After World War II it took time to clear up the arrears of track maintenance on both lines and it was not until 1953 that the L.M.R. restored any two-hour schedules, the W.R. following suit a year later.

   1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 98

   The wise man built his words upon the rocks / But I'm not bound to follow suit

   1984, “So. Central Rain”, in Reckoning, performed by R.E.M.

   I had a natural African American impulse to let this worldlywise middle-aged black woman's maternalism wash over me. And as a post-civil rights African American, I assumed that it was a white audience's job to follow suit.

   2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic, →ISSN

   But unless there is a Damascene conversion in the Treasury, the chances of the UK Government following suit currently look slim.

   2022 May 4, Anthony Lambert, “A revolution in ticketing”, in RAIL, number 956, page 33