Word.ws English Dictionary

push one's luck

push one's luck verb: to take an excessive risk or to attempt some task unlikely to succeed, especially after having already been unexpectedly lucky.

Verb

push one's luck (third-person singular simple present pushes one's luck, present participle pushing one's luck, simple past and past participle pushed one's luck)

  1. (idiomatic) To take an excessive risk or to attempt some task unlikely to succeed, especially after having already been unexpectedly lucky.
    • The jury had little choice but to free the killer. Sane enough at least not to push his luck, Sledge immediately left the state.1967 December 29, “Quick Cure for a Killer”, in Time
    • I don’t think I really treat you that special / Chase a pretty girl who actually gets you / Brutally honest and for that I applaud you (Skrrt, skrrt) / Boy just give it up, you’re really pushing your luck uh2021, City Girl, tiffi, “PACK IT UP BOY”, in C-GIRL, performed by tiffi

Forms of push one's luck

third-person singular presentpushes one's luck
present participlepushing one's luck
past participlepushed one's luck
pastpushed one's luck

Questions about push one's luck

What does push one's luck mean?
Push one's luck means to take an excessive risk or to attempt some task unlikely to succeed, especially after having already been unexpectedly lucky.
What part of speech is push one's luck?
Push one's luck is a verb.
What is the past tense of push one's luck?
The past tense of push one's luck is pushed one's luck.

Words near push one's luck in the dictionary

  1. push nets
  2. push notification
  3. push notifications
  4. push off
  5. push on
  6. push one's luck
  7. push one's way
  8. push one's way in
  9. push out
  10. push over
  11. push paper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: push one's luck (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-push one's luck.ogg.

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