kick up one's heels
kick up (one's) heels
1. To engage or partake in jovial festivities, especially by dancing. They spent most of their Saturdays kicking up their heels at the various nightclubs around town.
2. To relax or lounge with one's feet elevated, as on a sofa, recliner, bed, etc. After such a long week, all I wanted to do for the evening was kick up my heels and watch some movies with a big bowl of popcorn.
See also: heel, kick, up
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
kick up one's heels
Enjoy oneself, as in When she retires, she plans to kick up her heels and travel. This expression originated about 1600 with a totally different meaning, "to be killed." The modern sense, alluding to a prancing horse or exuberant dancer, dates from about 1900.
See also: heel, kick, up
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
kick up one's heels, to
To enjoy oneself exuberantly; to frolic. This term, which calls to mind a prancing horse or a vigorous dancer, originally meant to be knocked down or killed. Thomas Dekker used it in this sense in his play, The Honest Whore (1604): “I would not for a duckat she had kickt up her heeles.” The modern sense dates from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
See also: kick, up
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- kick (one's) heels up
- kick heels up
- kick up (one's) heels
- kick up heels
- kick up your heels
- partake of
- partake of (something)
- dirty (one's) hands
- dirty one's hands
- get hands dirty and dirty hands; soil hands