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any thing whatever; something, no matter what:
Do you have anything for a toothache?
a thing of any kind.
in any degree; to any extent; in any way; at all:
Does it taste anything like chocolate?
anything but, in no degree or respect; not in the least:
The plans were anything but definite.
anything goes, any type of conduct, dress, speech, etc., is considered acceptable or valid or is likely to be encountered and tolerated:
That resort is a place where anything goes!
Contemporary Examples

In laissez-faire Nevada, anything goes: except sexual hypocrisy and casino-tainted politicians.
Sin City Senator Sally Denton June 21, 2009

As for mistresses like Jaimee Grubbs and Jamie Jungers, well, without traditional morality to guide them, anything goes.
Call Girls Out-Class Mistresses Tracy Quan December 5, 2009

He shook his head knowingly, as if to intone the word ‘New York,’ were to intone a universal spirit of ‘anything goes’.
The Fourth War: My Lunch with a Jihadi Elliot Ackerman January 20, 2014

“You have to look for the ones whose profile says ‘anything goes,'” she added.
My $16 Videogame Striptease Brian Ries October 13, 2010

Collective action of that sort is hard to imagine in La Zona, the part of Reynosa where anything goes, including crack.
‘Whores’ Glory’: An Interview With Michael Glawogger Tracy Quan April 27, 2012

Historical Examples

Well, they can get rougher and noisier, and just anything goes, and this is some tough mob in here right now.
Hookers Richard F. Mann

Must somebody be always punished when anything goes wrong in life?
Lord Kilgobbin Charles Lever

My father will go on at me, I dare say, saying it was my fault, as he generally does when anything goes contrary to his orders.
Mildred Arkell, (Vol 1 of 3) Ellen Wood

If anything goes wrong, we must do what we can for the children.
Little Tora, The Swedish Schoolmistress and Other Stories Mrs. Woods Baker

You know that if anything goes wrong with it, you’re cut off, in a way.
The Confession Mary Roberts Rinehart

pronoun
any object, event, action, etc, whatever: anything might happen
noun
a thing of any kind: have you anything to declare?
adverb
in any way: he wasn’t anything like his father
anything but, by no means; not in the least: she was anything but happy
like anything, (intensifier; usually euphemistic): he ran like anything
n.

late Old English aniþing, from any + thing. But Old English ænig þinga apparently also meant “somehow, anyhow” (glossing Latin quoquo modo).
Everything is permitted, as in You’re wearing sneakers to the office?—Why not? Anything goes these days. This idiom began life as everything goes, which appeared in George Meredith’s novel The Egoist (1879). In America anything was the preferred word, which gained further currency with Cole Porter’s use of the term as the title of his 1934 song and musical comedy, Anything Goes!

anything but
anything goes
anything like

also see:

can’t do anything with
if anything
like anything
not anything like