Play It By Ear (Verb)
Meaning
Decide on one's actions as one goes along, depending on the situation; "She didn't know what to expect from her new job, so she played it by ear".
Classification
Verbs of political and social activities and events.
Examples
- I'm going to a job interview and I don't know what questions they'll ask, so I'll play it by ear.
- The traveler didn't have a set plan, she preferred to play it by ear when moving from city to city.
- Since this was his first major business meeting, John thought it best to play it by ear.
- We didn't have prior experience managing a large team so we decided to play it by ear.
- We're not sure how long the presentation will take, so we'll play it by ear and adjust our schedule accordingly.