to hang up one's boots
- idiom
- UK
:
colgar las botas
- Many players choose to hang up their boots after winning a championship to retire on a high note.
Examples
-
She felt it was time to hang up her boots and enjoy life outside of competitive swimming.
-
I mean, don't get me wrong, you used to be great maybe like a hundred years ago, but now you're just like every other washed-up, over-the-hill has-been that should've hung up his boots two decades ago.
-
After a long career in professional football, he decided to hang up his boots and focus on coaching.
Synonyms
788
1.2
To leave a job or position
533
3.7
Leave a job or office by giving notice
148
3.3
Give up an important job so someone else can take over
53
4.2
Stop being a leader with official power, for example a government official or company boss
20
4.9
To stop doing a job or role politely
6
2.5
To stop working at a job because you want something different
To stop doing an activity, especially to stop playing music for good
To stop working after a long time
Antonyms
How Retired
Surface Forms
Morphology
hang + up + one + boots
The literal components (hang + up + one's + boots) suggest putting boots away, which can cue a cessation of activity and thus gives learners a plausible inferential route to ‘stop playing’. However, mapping that image specifically to ‘retire from a profession or career’ (especially in sports) is an idiomatic extension that a B1 learner would not reliably predict from the parts alone, so prior exposure is usually needed.
Etymology
The idiom hang up one's boots may come from old soldiers and players who literally hung up their boots on a peg when they stopped working or playing. So the phrase now means 'to retire' or 'to stop doing a job or sport'.