Word.ws English Dictionary

standing on one's own two feet

standing on one's own two feet is the present participle and gerund of stand on one's own two feet.

Meaning of stand on one's own two feet

Verb

stand on one's own two feet (third-person singular simple present stands on one's own two feet, present participle standing on one's own two feet, simple past and past participle stood on one's own two feet)

  1. (idiomatic) To be independent and self-sufficient; to survive without any help.
    • It's about time he left home and learnt how to stand on his own two feet.
    Synonyms:
    stand on one's own legs

Questions about standing on one's own two feet

What is standing on one's own two feet the present participle and gerund of?
Standing on one's own two feet is the present participle and gerund of stand on one's own two feet.

Words near standing on one's own two feet in the dictionary

  1. standing on ceremony
  2. standing on its own
  3. standing on one's dignity
  4. standing on one's head
  5. standing on one's own bottom
  6. standing on one's own two feet
  7. standing on someone's shoulders
  8. standing on the shoulders of
  9. standing on the shoulders of giants
  10. standing on velvet
  11. standing one's ground

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: standing on one's own two feet (page history and authors); stand on one's own two feet (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:

Cite this entry: “standing on one's own two feet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/standing_on_one%27s_own_two_feet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.