Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Based on or using intuition and experience rather than a plan or method.
- adjective Performed without using instruments.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective idiomatic Done by
feel ,guess , ortrial and error rather than by carefulplanning ,thought ortechnique .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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They tend to think in images rather than words, focus on the big picture rather than the details, and go through life in a somewhat seat-of-the-pants a.k.a. scattered way.
CNN.com 2011
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This too was once a seat-of-the-pants operation that continually presents brave, fresh, young, strong art.
Paul Klein: The People's Art Fair Paul Klein 2011
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You have been at your best, I dare say, in the campaign and in office, when you have paid little attention to the conventional wisdom; when you have pushed aside “politics de rigueur” and gone with “politics de seat-of-the-pants.”
Dear President Obama #244: Picture time: Uh, check the exposure… 2009
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They simply bridge the gaping holes left by four years of seat-of-the-pants plotting that suddenly have to be tied up with a neat bow as if they were intended from the start.
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In this particular case, how much it has to do with climate change is, in my seat-of-the-pants opinion, limited.
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This too was once a seat-of-the-pants operation that continually presents brave, fresh, young, strong art.
Paul Klein: The People's Art Fair Paul Klein 2011
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Instead he's a seat-of-the-pants American pragmatist, trying to make things work, lead his team to victory, by muddling through.
Majesty at Royal Melbourne John Paul Newport 2011
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This too was once a seat-of-the-pants operation that continually presents brave, fresh, young, strong art.
Paul Klein: The People's Art Fair Paul Klein 2011
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This too was once a seat-of-the-pants operation that continually presents brave, fresh, young, strong art.
Paul Klein: The People's Art Fair Paul Klein 2011
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Or, you might be one of those seat-of-the-pants writers who loves to plop down each day at the computer or over a pad of paper and just write, letting your story flow without planning, anxious to see where your story takes you.
Prolagus commented on the word seat-of-the-pants
Literally.
August 24, 2010