pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
pull oneself up by one's bootstraps verb: to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities.
Verb
pull oneself up by one's bootstraps (third-person singular simple present pulls oneself up by one's bootstraps, present participle pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps, simple past and past participle pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps)
- To begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities.
- We can't get a loan, so we'll just have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots.1834 Oct. 4, Workingman's Advocate, p. 1
Synonyms of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
Forms of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
| third-person singular present | pulls oneself up by one's bootstraps |
|---|---|
| present participle | pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps |
| past participle | pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps |
| past | pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps |
| alternative form | pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps |
| alternative form | lift oneself up by one's bootstraps |
| alternative form | lift oneself up by one's own bootstraps |
| alternative form | raise oneself up by one's bootstraps |
| alternative form | raise oneself up by one's own bootstraps |
Origin of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
Early 19th century US; attested 1834. In original use, often used to refer to pulling oneself over a fence, and implying that someone is attempting or has claimed some ludicrously far-fetched or impossible task. Presumably a variant on a traditional tall tale, as elaborated below. The shift in sense to a possible task appears to have developed in the early 20th century, and the use of the phrase to mean “a ludicrous task” continued into the 1920s. Widely attributed since at least 1901 to The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, (1781) by Rudolf Erich Raspe, where the eponymous Baron pulls himself out of a swamp by his own pigtail, though not by his bootstraps. The Adventures is primarily a collection of centuries-old tall tales, however, and using bootstraps may have arisen as a variant on the same theme.
Words formed from pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
Questions about pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
- What does pull oneself up by one's bootstraps mean?
- Pull oneself up by one's bootstraps means to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities.
- What part of speech is pull oneself up by one's bootstraps?
- Pull oneself up by one's bootstraps is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps?
- The past tense of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps is pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps.
Words near pull oneself up by one's bootstraps in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pull oneself up by one's bootstraps (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.