Word.ws English Dictionary

over one's skis

over one's skis prepositional phrase: acting or speaking prematurely; getting ahead of oneself.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Acting or speaking prematurely; getting ahead of oneself.
    • [T]he Michigan coach said Cunningham was “way out over his skis” in projecting that Lewis’ absence was due to more than a minor injury.2016 September 5, Nick Bromberg, “Jim Harbaugh: ESPN commentator ‘way out over his skis’ speculating on player suspension”, in Yahoo Sports, retrieved 13 Dec 2016

Forms of over one's skis

alternative formout over one's skis
alternative formin front of one's skis
alternative formahead of one's skis

Origin of over one's skis

Per Noreen Malone’s article in the Intelligencer: “the phrase’s metaphorical use seems to have begun in the finance world. Its first non-skiing print usages came in the early nineties, in publications like Investment Dealers’ Digest. For instance, a 1991 article quoted a “market source” describing a race between Goldman Sachs’ and Lehman Bros.’ preferred stock desk. “Someone said [Lehman] couldn’t get a clean legal opinion on it. They may have been out over their skis a little bit with their structure.”” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2012/05/where-did-the-phrase-over-his-skis-come-from.html As in skiing, the person in question has taken a position from which they must quickly back away. Taking a position that one lacks the ability to maintain. Quite normal in skiing, but costly in other fields.

Questions about over one's skis

What does over one's skis mean?
Over one's skis means acting or speaking prematurely; getting ahead of oneself.
What part of speech is over one's skis?
Over one's skis is a prepositional phrase.

Words near over one's skis in the dictionary

  1. over medium
  2. over my dead body
  3. over night
  4. over nine thousand
  5. over one's head
  6. over one's skis
  7. over open sights
  8. over rate
  9. over rates
  10. over square
  11. Over Staveley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: over one's skis (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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