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Glite Dictionary
to lower one's sights

to lower one's sights

1 6.9
Choose smaller goals that are easier to reach when big ones feel impossible
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : bajar las expectativas
  • Realizing the project was too ambitious, the team chose to lower their sights and focus on smaller milestones.

Examples

  • He had to lower his sights from his dream of becoming an astronaut to a more attainable career in engineering.

  • Well, maybe it's time to just lower your sights a little bit.

    The Rise & Fall of a White Collar Hooligan (2012)

  • I mean, lower your sights a bit.

    Boogie Woogie (2010)

  • How we lower our sights.

    Wolf (1994)

  • Is it any wonder that we have lowered our sights, as it were, and sought our deepest satisfactions in this-worldly betterment?

    Academic text (2001)

  • In spite of the fact that over the last several years, Americans have been forced to lower our sights in a larger sense, which now includes not only gazing at Mel Gibson's butt, but at the lower end of a divided body politic as well, we still don't know how or what to think about what we see.

    Academic text (1994)

  • After months of struggling, she decided to lower her sights and aim for a more achievable job.

Synonyms

to settle for
vsto lower one's sights
143 3.6

Accept less than you wanted or hoped for

reduces hopes ahead of time rather than simply agreeing to less
to settle for less
vsto lower one's sights
9 4.5

To accept something worse than what you want or deserve

lowers expectations in advance rather than accepting a lower outcome
to come down to earth
vsto lower one's sights
1 4.8

Start to think and act in a realistic way after being excited

reduces goals and hopes because of reality rather than only changing behaviour
to pull in one's horns
vsto lower one's sights
  • UK
1 9.0

To become less confident and not try as hard after problems

reduces plans and hopes in response to reality rather than behaviour
to bridle expectations
vsto lower one's sights
7.8

Limit how much you hope for to avoid disappointment

lowers ambitions as a practical response not just cautious control

Antonyms

to aim high
5 3.9

Try to reach very difficult goals

How Ambitious

to dream big
  • Informal
15 3.4
to aim high
5 3.9
to lower one's sights
  • Informal
1 6.9

Surface Forms

lower one's sights infinitive
lowered one's sights past
lowered one's sights past participle
lowering one's sights present participle
lowers one's sights third person singular

Morphology

lower + one + sight

The verb 'lower' clearly means to reduce and 'one's sights' uses 'sights' metaphorically for aims or expectations (cf. 'set one's sights on'). The meaning is compositionally motivated but depends on a metaphorical extension of 'sight' to 'goal', so a B1 learner who knows the words might infer it but not reliably without prior exposure.

Etymology

Lower one's sights may come from aiming with a gun: if you lower the sights you aim lower at a closer, easier target. That's why the phrase means 'to reduce your goals or expectations'.