to kick one's heels
- idiom
- Informal
:
esperar
- Had to kick my heels at Garrison's for an hour... without even a cigarette.
Examples
-
I had to kick my heels at the airport for two hours because my flight was delayed.
-
He spent the afternoon kicking his heels in the coffee shop until his meeting started.
-
While waiting for her friend, she decided to kick her heels and browse through her phone.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To stay in one place or delay action until something happens
80
3.7
To wait patiently and not act
71
2.5
To spend time doing nothing while waiting for someone or something
22
7.4
Wait patiently and stay calm during a delay
17
2.0
Be patient and let others go before you until it is your turn
3
7.9
To wait somewhere for a long time feeling impatient
Antonyms
How Bored
- Informal
1
6.8
- Informal
- Informal
- Informal
407
2.0
227
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
kick + one's + heel
The literal words 'kick' and 'heel' create a vivid image of someone idly kicking their heels, which can plausibly suggest waiting or boredom, so there is a clear metaphorical link to the MWE meaning. However, this is an idiomatic usage where the conventionalized sense 'to wait around' is not fully predictable from the parts alone and may require prior exposure for reliable interpretation by a B1 learner.
Etymology
Kick one's heels comes from the image of a person sitting and kicking their heels out of boredom or impatience while they wait, so it now means 'to wait around' or 'be forced to wait'.