vote with one's feet
/ˈvoʊt wɪð wʌnz ˈfiːt/
vote with one's feet verb: to express one's preferences through one's actions, by voluntarily participating in or withdrawing from an activity, group, or process; especially, by physical migration to leave a situation one does not like, or to move to a situation one regards as more beneficial.
Verb
vote with one's feet (third-person singular simple present votes with one's feet, present participle voting with one's feet, simple past and past participle voted with one's feet)
- To express one's preferences through one's actions, by voluntarily participating in or withdrawing from an activity, group, or process; especially, by physical migration to leave a situation one does not like, or to move to a situation one regards as more beneficial.
- But Khrushchev's economic plan for the East Germans means a new kind of dependence on their old Russian foes, and its fulfillment is a political question—on which East Germans, whatever their phony 99.9% elections say, still vote with their feet by fleeing West at the rate of 2,000 a week.1958 December 8, "Most Useful Satellite", Time
- That would enable the students to "vote with their feet" for programs of proven excellence and presumably for fields where the most jobs are available.1973 April 2, “The Ph.D. Glut”, in Time
vote with one's feet meaning in Vietnamese
vote with one's feet in Vietnamese
- to express one's preferences through one's actions
- bỏ phiếu bằng chân
Forms of vote with one's feet
| third-person singular present | votes with one's feet |
|---|---|
| present participle | voting with one's feet |
| past participle | voted with one's feet |
| past | voted with one's feet |
Origin of vote with one's feet
Probably based on the practice of pedibus in sententiam ire in the Roman Senate, but the phrase in its modern sense was popularized by Lenin, through whom it gained some currency in left-wing parlance in various languages. It became more widely known when Western journalists and politicians started using it, not without mockery, in reference to those individuals who fled Communist East Germany towards the West between 1945 and the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
Questions about vote with one's feet
- What does vote with one's feet mean?
- Vote with one's feet means to express one's preferences through one's actions, by voluntarily participating in or withdrawing from an activity, group, or process; especially, by physical migration to leave a situation one does not like, or to move to a situation one regards as more beneficial.
- What is vote with one's feet in Vietnamese?
- Vote with one's feet in Vietnamese is bỏ phiếu bằng chân. See Vote with one's feet meaning in Vietnamese.
- What part of speech is vote with one's feet?
- Vote with one's feet is a verb.
- How do you pronounce vote with one's feet?
- Vote with one's feet is pronounced /ˈvoʊt wɪð wʌnz ˈfiːt/.
- What is the past tense of vote with one's feet?
- The past tense of vote with one's feet is voted with one's feet.
Words near vote with one's feet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vote with one's 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-vote with one's feet.ogg.
Cite this entry: “vote with one's feet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vote_with_one%27s_feet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.