to toot your own horn
7
7.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
alardear
- I don't want to toot my own horn, but it's pretty next level.
- want to toot your own horn
- like to toot my own horn
- toot my own horn here
Let them speak to how wonderful you are versus you Tooting your own horn.
- Let them speak to how wonderful you are versus you Tooting your own horn.
Examples
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I was taught not to toot my own horn, which was something I eventually had to unlearn to a certain degree in order to progress in my career.
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I usually don't like to toot my own horn, but I received an award for my project last week.
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Not to toot my own horn...
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Not to toot my own horn, but...
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Not to toot my own horn here, but that takes an investment of time and effort.
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Not to toot my own horn, but I could do something pretty extraordinary.
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And I'm not one to toot my own horn, but you know what?
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It's the best work I've done, not to toot my own horn...
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Not to toot my own horn, but that's a hell of a bargain.
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Here you have every right, and perhaps an obligation, to toot your own horn and be a bit egotistical.
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Synonyms
191
2.7
To talk in a proud way about yourself or what you have
60
6.9
Show pleasure about your success or someone else's failure in a way that makes others feel bad
28
6.9
To praise yourself too much for something you did
8
7.8
To say you are more important or successful than you really are
6
7.9
To brag in a way that annoys other people
4
7.0
To act or speak in a proud, boastful way
4
6.1
Talk in a very excited way to praise someone or something
1
7.8
To talk proudly about your own abilities or achievements
To talk proudly about your success in public
To brag about what you have done
To talk too proudly about yourself or what you have done
Feel pleased about your own qualities, achievements or things you own
Antonyms
How Boastful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to boast' is metaphorically related to literally making noise on one’s horn to draw attention to oneself, so a learner who knows 'toot', 'your', 'own' and 'horn' could plausibly infer a meaning about self-promotion but not the exact sense 'brag' without some exposure. The idiom relies on a cultural metaphor (compare English 'blow your own trumpet') found in several languages, which gives partial cues but stops short of full compositional predictability.
Etymology
The idiom toot your own horn comes from the simple picture of someone blowing a horn to get attention: if you toot your own horn in a crowd, you are telling people 'look at me'. So the phrase means 'to boast' about your own good work.