march to the beat of a different drum en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
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(idiomatic) To do things in one's own way regardless of societal norms and conventional expectations.
The ad ends with a shot of Mark pushing the car down a hill and Suzanne saying, "He still marches to the beat of a different drum."
2004, Danny Hakim, “E.P.A. Energy-Saving Spots Give Cars Short Shrift”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 Jul 2011:Siegfried and Roy, two nuts from Germany, are out of their wealthy little minds. They live in a mansion whose ceiling is painted like the Sistine Chapel, with either Siegfried or Roy (who can remember?) in place of Adam. Roy has a "meditation chamber" (the rest of us have dressing rooms) furnished with a mystic rug and cages for his tigers. They wow the crowd with heavy machinery and endangered-species eugenics. I love S&R. They march to the beat of a different drum machine.
1994 January 10, Penn Jillette, “Las Vegas: Tonight! Miracles, Live!”, in Time:A defense of non-conformism, deceptively simple in tone and construction, and only slightly political, it is the story of a loner . . . who stays in bed on Bastille Day and ignores the military parade . . . "the good people don't like it when you take a path different from theirs," when you march to the beat of a different drum.
2004, Larry Portis, French Frenzies: A Social History of Pop Music in France, →ISBN, page 114:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| march to one's own drummer | alternative | lexicographic | |
| march to a different beat | alternative | lexicographic | |
| marched to the beat of a different drum | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| marched to the beat of a different drum | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| march to a different tune | alternative | lexicographic | |
| march to the beat of a different tune | alternative | lexicographic | |
| marches to the beat of a different drum | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| march to a different drum | alternative | lexicographic | |
| march to the beat of a different drummer | alternative | lexicographic | |
| march to the beat of one's own drummer | alternative | lexicographic | |
| marching to the beat of a different drum | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| march to a different drummer | alternative | lexicographic | |
| march to the beat of one's own drum | alternative | lexicographic | |
| march to one's own drum | alternative | lexicographic |
Translations (11)
cmn 不走尋常路 /不走寻常路 (to do things unconventionally) · de aus der Reihe tanzen (to do things unconventionally) · ru идти́ свои́м путём (to do things unconventionally) · cmn 特立獨行 /特立独行 (to do things unconventionally) · pt fazer as coisas do seu jeito (to do things unconventionally) · cmn 獨樹一幟 /独树一帜 (to do things unconventionally) · fi kulkea omia polkujaan (to do things unconventionally) · es marchar al ritmo de un diferente tambor (to do things unconventionally) · de aus der Art schlagen (to do things unconventionally) · ru идти́ не в но́гу с други́ми (to do things unconventionally) · cmn 標新立異 /标新立异 (to do things unconventionally)