Word.ws English Dictionary

pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps

pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps is the alternative form of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.

Meaning of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps

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)

  1. (idiomatic) 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.

Forms of pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps

third-person singular presentpulls oneself up by one's own bootstraps
present participlepulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps
past participlepulled oneself up by one's own bootstraps
pastpulled oneself up by one's own bootstraps

Questions about pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps

What is pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps the alternative form of?
Pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps is the alternative form of pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.

Words near pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps in the dictionary

  1. pull one's socks up
  2. pull one's weight
  3. pull oneself
  4. pull oneself together
  5. pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
  6. pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps
  7. pull out
  8. pull out all stops
  9. pull out all the stops
  10. pull out of a hat
  11. pull out of one's arse

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps (page history and authors); 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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