Meanings
- idiomaticnot comparablesteady; careful; avoiding sudden change
He looked to be in fine shape, sitting glassy-eyed behind the wheel, staring straight at the narrow two-lane highway, holding a steady-as-she-goes course of fifty miles an hour.
2000, Matthew V. Schofield, When Reason Fails1 more example
Graham James, the bishop of Norwich, is favourite everywhere of the steady-as-she-goes party. He is widely experienced – he worked in Lambeth Palace under the previous archbishop, Lord Carey – and widely trusted, as well as scholarly.
2012 September 20, Andrew Brown, “Archbishop of Canterbury succession race begins in earnest”, in The Guardian (online)
Origin
From the nautical phrase steady as she goes.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
steady-as-she-goes. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/steady-as-she-goes
“steady-as-she-goes.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/steady-as-she-goes. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “steady-as-she-goes,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/steady-as-she-goes.
Source: steady-as-she-goes on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.