put one's foot down, to
put one's foot down (about someone or something)
Fig. to assert something strongly. The boss put her foot down and refused to accept any more changes to the plan.
See also: down, foot, put
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
put one's foot down
Take a firm stand, as in She put her foot down and said we could not go to the carnival. This idiom alludes to setting down one's foot firmly, representing a firm position. [Late 1800s]
See also: down, foot, put
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
put (one's) foot down
To take a firm stand.
See also: down, foot, put
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
put one's foot down, to
To take a firm position. The analogy presumably is to setting one or both feet in a fixed position, representing a firm stand. Although versions of this term (usually with set one’s foot down) exist from the sixteenth century on, it became current only in the nineteenth century. The OED cites James Payn’s The Luck of the Darrells (1886): “She put her foot down . . . upon the least symptoms of an unpleasantry.”
See also: foot, put
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- blaze down
- blaze down on (someone or something)
- be down to (do something)
- be down to something
- come a gutser
- be down to (one)
- be down to somebody/something
- bounce up and down
- boil down to, to
- bear down