follow the wind

present singular third person follows the wind · participle present following the wind · participle past followed the wind · past followed the wind

1. To choose what one does based on current circumstances rather than sticking to a plan or fixed set of principles.

   Lucien wrote to Joseph: in a Revolution, it is essential to hew to a line, not "follow the wind" or "suddenly change sides."

   2004, Steven Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life, →ISBN, page 52

   3 more examples

   For inherent in our legacy is a commitment to Follow the Wind, scanning the horizons, reading the signs of the times, listening to the voice of the Spirit even as we continue to be nourished deeply by the Word.

   2010, Steven M. Studebaker, Pentecostalism and Globalization, →ISBN

   So, to put the ritual in motion, let's suppose Bob wanted to follow the wind on any given day to create a “secret communication” that God and others would understand.

   2011, John Zurn, Memoirs of a Bipolar Soul, →ISBN, page 35

   “I’ve never known Mark to be religious,” Gold observed. But she noted that “people close to him have said, ‘He follows the wind.’ ”

   2018 December 27, Patrick Radden Keefe, “How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success”, in The New Yorker

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see follow, wind.

   Thus, short-term fluctuations in ice drift will tend to follow the wind, while longer-term variations can be more strongly affected by ice interaction.

   2012, Yvonne Herman, The Arctic Seas: Climatology, Oceanography, Geology, and Biology, →ISBN