Word.ws English Dictionary

rest on one's laurels

rest on one's laurels verb: to rely on a past success instead of trying to improve oneself further.

Verb

rest on one's laurels (third-person singular simple present rests on one's laurels, present participle resting on one's laurels, simple past and past participle rested on one's laurels)

  1. (idiomatic) To rely on a past success instead of trying to improve oneself further.
    • "Rail has a good basis for promoting green travel options, but we can't rest on our laurels. We need to keep on moving forwards because other modes are upping their games as well," says Brennan-Brown.2020 December 16, Daniel Puddicombe, “Treated DMUs become cleaner and greener”, in Rail, page 47
    • Manchester City won an incredible five trophies last year but the most successful sides rarely rest on their laurels and they will be determined to enjoy success again this year.2024 January 7, Gary Rose, “Manchester City 5-0 Huddersfield Town”, in BBC Sport

Forms of rest on one's laurels

third-person singular presentrests on one's laurels
present participleresting on one's laurels
past participlerested on one's laurels
pastrested on one's laurels

Questions about rest on one's laurels

What does rest on one's laurels mean?
Rest on one's laurels means to rely on a past success instead of trying to improve oneself further.
What part of speech is rest on one's laurels?
Rest on one's laurels is a verb.
What is the past tense of rest on one's laurels?
The past tense of rest on one's laurels is rested on one's laurels.

Words near rest on one's laurels in the dictionary

  1. rest mass
  2. rest masses
  3. rest of advantage
  4. rest of the UK
  5. rest on
  6. rest on one's laurels
  7. rest one's case
  8. rest one's soul
  9. rest operator
  10. rest operators
  11. rest parameter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rest on one's laurels (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-rest on one's laurels.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rest on one's laurels.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rest_on_one%27s_laurels. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.