have one's way

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

have one's way

1. (idiomatic, of a person) To obtain the circumstances one wishes for; to do what one wishes to do, or to have others do what one wishes them to do.
2. (idiomatic) To achieve a desired or natural result.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, chapter 5:

     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. Thus while I drank, he told me where I was, namely, in an attic at the Why Not?, but would not say more then, bidding me get to sleep again, and I should know all afterwards. 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.

3. (euphemistic, followed by with) To have sexual intercourse with, especially without the consent of one's partner.

• have one's way with