to pick up one's marbles
- idiom
- Informal
:
retirarse
- She wants to pick up her marbles and go home.
Examples
-
The little lady picked up her marbles and went home.
-
When the team fell apart, many members chose to pick up their marbles and find new jobs.
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After losing the argument, he decided to pick up his marbles and leave the meeting.
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She was so frustrated with the project that she wanted to pick up her marbles and quit.
Synonyms
632
3.5
Leave a person, place, or situation without taking part anymore
206
3.4
To stop being involved in an activity or agreement
164
3.1
To leave a meeting or event suddenly to show you disagree
123
5.1
To stop doing a job, duty or action after someone tells you to
79
3.2
Leave an activity or agreement you had joined
37
3.5
To leave a place suddenly to show you are angry or upset
37
8.1
Tell someone to leave in a rude way
20
4.9
To stop doing a job or role politely
12
7.7
Leave a place quickly, often in a rude way
10
4.9
Leave a person because they are angry with you
2
9.3
Leave a game or group angrily because you did not get your way
1
9.9
To leave a place quickly because you do not want to be there
1
9.9
To leave a group or activity because you do not get your way
To leave a place quickly, often to avoid trouble
Leave a place after a bad experience and not return
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal components ('pick up' + 'one's marbles') evoke collecting game pieces and therefore stopping play, so a learner could plausibly infer a sense of leaving or withdrawing. However, mapping that physical action to the pragmatic meaning 'to withdraw from a situation, often from disagreement' requires cultural/pragmatic inference and is not fully compositional or predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
Pick up one's marbles may come from children playing marbles: when a child is angry or loses, they literally pick up their marbles and go home, stopping the game. So, the phrase now means 'to leave' or 'to stop taking part' because you are unhappy.