stay the course

present singular third person stays the course · participle present staying the course · participle past stayed the course · past stayed the course

1. idiomaticTo persist or continue, especially in the face of difficulties.

   If you decide to stay the course and finish engineering school, it will mean long hours and sleepless nights.

   1 more example

   This sort of thing is meat and drink to the born Controller—and Controllers are born with the right imperturbable temperament for the job; hence the fact that they are recruited from many different grades of operating staff, and some recruits don't stay the course.

   1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 132

   Synonyms: stay the distance