to get over your skis
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
excederse
- Don't get over your skis!
Examples
-
She realized she was getting over her skis when she agreed to chair three committees at work.
-
She gets over her skis too often!
-
If you try to run two projects at once, you might get over your skis.
-
Investors often get over their skis during a booming market and take unnecessary risks.
-
He tends to get over his skis when taking on too many projects at once.
-
Don't get over your skis by trying to manage that large event all by yourself.
-
Making big promises can lead you to get over your skis and disappoint others.
Synonyms
19
6.3
To try to do more than you can handle and cause strain
12
5.9
To give someone too much work or responsibility
8
6.6
To try to do more than you can and fail
3
7.0
Show too much confidence and take risks that make you lose your advantage
How Confident
193
3.6
- Informal
4
3.5
210
2.9
1
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The idiom is a metaphor from skiing—leaning 'over your skis' causes loss of control, so the phrase maps to becoming overextended or overconfident. Although the literal words ('get', 'over', 'your', 'skis') hint at exceeding one's bounds, the specific idiomatic sense relies on sport/cultural knowledge and is not fully derivable by a B1 learner, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Get over your skis comes from skiing: when a skier leans too far forward and puts their weight over the skis, they lose balance and control. So today, to get over your skis means 'to take on more than you can manage' or to act too confident.