have one's way

present singular third person has one's way · participle present having one's way · participle past had one's way · past had one's way

1. idiomaticTo obtain the circumstances one wishes for; to do what one wishes to do, or to have others do what one wishes them to do.

   Synonyms: get one's way

2. idiomaticTo achieve a desired or natural result.

   1 more example

   He held out to me a bowl of steaming broth, that filled the room with a savour sweeter, ten thousand times, to me than every rose and lily of the world; yet would not let me drink it at a gulp, but made me sip it with a spoon like any baby. […] And so it was ten days or more before youth and health had their way, and I was strong again; and all that time Elzevir Block sat by my bed, and nursed me tenderly as a woman. So piece by piece I learned the story of how they found me.

   [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, “In the Vault”, in Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC, pages 62–63

3. euphemisticTo have sexual intercourse with, especially without the consent of one's partner.