Word.ws English Dictionary

one foot out the door

one foot out the door noun: indicates being on the verge of or in the process of (and sometimes eagerness for) leaving (a place, a relationship, life, etc).

Noun

one foot out the door

  1. Indicates being on the verge of or in the process of (and sometimes eagerness for) leaving (a place, a relationship, life, etc).
    • If you are unhappy in your relationship and considering polyamory as a “one-foot-out-the-door” strategy, please reconsider.2016 January 14, “When Your Partner Wants Non-Monogamy and You Don't”, in Psychology Today
    • "Interns try and turn in at least two or three reports a week. Like I said, I have one foot out the door, so here is a little advice. It's not quantity, it's quality they look for."2018, Antoinette Zam, Scarred by Death
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see one, foot, out, the, door.

Examples of one foot out the door in a sentence

  • Your whole team is stressed and one foot out the door."2022, Frank O'Brien, quoted in Tangled Goods: The Practical Life of Pro Bono Advertising by Iddo Tavory, Sonia Prelat, and Shelly Ronen...
  • I didn't come in here saying I'm one foot out the door.2026 January 21, Ally Beardlsey, my boss is sabotaging my clown career (w/ Ally Beardsley), Perfect Person (podcast) episode 185 (c. 5:57)

Questions about one foot out the door

What does one foot out the door mean?
One foot out the door means indicates being on the verge of or in the process of (and sometimes eagerness for) leaving (a place, a relationship, life, etc).
How do you use one foot out the door in a sentence?
Your whole team is stressed and one foot out the door."
What part of speech is one foot out the door?
One foot out the door is a noun.

Words near one foot out the door in the dictionary

  1. one fingered salute
  2. one fingered salutes
  3. one flesh
  4. one foot
  5. one foot in the grave
  6. one foot out the door
  7. one foots
  8. one for all, all for one
  9. one for luck
  10. one for the money, two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go
  11. one for the road

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: one foot out the door (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “one foot out the door.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/one_foot_out_the_door. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.