Word.ws English Dictionary

put the boot in

put the boot in verb: to kick a fallen opponent.

Verb

put the boot in (third-person singular simple present puts the boot in, present participle putting the boot in, simple past and past participle put the boot in)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To kick a fallen opponent.
  2. (figuratively, intransitive, slang) To kick someone when they are down.

Forms of put the boot in

third-person singular presentputs the boot in
present participleputting the boot in
past participleput the boot in
pastput the boot in

Questions about put the boot in

What does put the boot in mean?
Put the boot in means to kick a fallen opponent.
What part of speech is put the boot in?
Put the boot in is a verb.
What is the past tense of put the boot in?
The past tense of put the boot in is put the boot in.

Words near put the boot in in the dictionary

  1. put the bad mouth on
  2. put the bee on
  3. put the beggar on the gentleman
  4. put the bite on
  5. put the blame on
  6. put the boot in
  7. put the bottom rail on top
  8. put the brakes on
  9. put the cabosh on
  10. put the cart before the horse
  11. put the case

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put the boot in (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-put the boot in.ogg.

Cite this entry: “put the boot in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/put_the_boot_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.