to have tickets on oneself
- idiom
- Archaic
- After getting a promotion, he started acting like he had tickets on himself.
Examples
-
Don't have tickets on yourself just because you won the award!
-
She really has tickets on herself after that performance.
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Don’t have tickets on yourself just because you won one match.
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Some people say she has tickets on herself, but I think she's just confident.
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After winning the contest, he started to have tickets on himself and bragged about his skills.
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You shouldn't have tickets on yourself just because you received a compliment; stay humble.
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Many believe she has tickets on herself since she always boasts about her achievements.
Synonyms
To act as if you are better than other people
Act in a way that shows off to make yourself feel important
Antonyms
How Arrogant
- Archaic
Surface Forms
Morphology
have + tickets + on + oneself
The sense 'to consider oneself more important' is not transparently built from the literal meanings of 'have' + 'tickets' + 'on' + 'oneself' — a learner who knows those words would most likely interpret a physical possession of tickets rather than conceit. This is a dialectal/idiomatic usage where the metaphorical link (why 'tickets' should mean self-importance) is unpredictable without prior exposure, so it would be opaque to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Have tickets on oneself may come from the idea of betting on yourself: if you literally had tickets 'on' oneself, you were sure you would win. So, the phrase now means 'to think you are better than you are' or 'to be conceited'.