play it by ear

1. 1.

   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”

   Broaderact

Questions about play it by ear

What does play it by ear mean?

play it by ear means "decide on one's actions as one goes along, depending on the situation".

Is play it by ear a common word?

play it by ear is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.