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Glite Dictionary
🧑‍💼 To promote out 📤 To refer upward
to kick upstairs

to kick upstairs

7.9
Promote someone to a higher job to move them out of a key role
  • phrasal verb
  • /kɪk ʌpˈstɛrz/
  • Informal
translation icon : ascender
  • We were more closely supervised by another Sylvester, Woody's brother Craig, a man who'd worked even longer in the field than Woody but had remained a surveyor and had stubbornly resisted being kicked upstairs.

Examples

  • And I guess in a couple years... ...when the boss gets kicked upstairs or gets pinched with a tranny hooker... ...I'll get my shot in the director's chair.

    Life As We Know It (2010)

  • I became the honoree president of the thing, sort of, you know, kicked upstairs, played no active role and Richard kept it going.

  • It will be rewritten, then kicked upstairs and combined with other reports they get.

    Fair Game (2010)

  • After years of dedicated service, she was unexpectedly kicked upstairs to a management position, leaving her previous role behind.

  • The company decided to kick upstairs the project manager, hoping to avoid confrontation while appointing a new leader.

  • When the director left, the board members chose to kick upstairs the assistant director instead of hiring someone new.

Synonyms

to advance
vsto kick upstairs
417 3.4

To help something move forward or become better

is sometimes a reassignment aimed at reducing someone's influence
to promote
vsto kick upstairs
182 2.9

Give someone a higher job or rank

is often used to move someone out of their central duties
to elevate
vsto kick upstairs
  • Formal
52 4.4

To give someone a higher job or rank

may function as a quiet method to remove them from influence
to move up
vsto kick upstairs
43 2.0

Go to a higher place or level

differs by being an action often used to sideline someone
to raise
vsto kick upstairs
38 2.7

To move someone to a higher job or rank

is commonly applied to shift someone away from key responsibilities
to upgrade
vsto kick upstairs
23 3.6

To give someone a higher job or rank

can instead be a way to reassign someone away from real power
to bring up
vsto kick upstairs
3 3.3

Move someone to a higher job or rank

is frequently used to sideline someone rather than genuinely reward them
to spot promote
vsto kick upstairs
  • US
8.1

To give someone a higher job immediately without following normal steps

is done to remove someone from an important role rather than reward them

Antonyms

to demote
37 5.6

To move someone to a lower job or rank because they did not do well

How High

to elevate
  • Formal
52 4.4
to kick upstairs
  • Informal
7.9
to promote
182 2.9

Surface Forms

kick upstairs infinitive
kicked upstairs past
kicked upstairs past participle
kicking upstairs present participle
kicks upstairs third person singular

Morphology

kick + upstairs

The components 'kick' (to push/remove) and 'upstairs' (to a higher level) give a plausible spatial metaphor for moving something to a higher authority, so a learner might infer the general idea of 'escalate' or 'pass up'. However, the exact pragmatic sense—referring responsibility or promoting someone as a way of removing them—is a metaphorical extension and not fully predictable from the parts, so prior exposure is often needed for the precise meaning.

Etymology

Kick upstairs may come from the image of a boss literally kicking a worker to an office upstairs, moving them away from the busy work below. That's why it now often means 'promote someone to a higher but less important job'.