trade places

trade places

To switch to the spot, role, or position that another person currently is in. I want to talk to the people at the other end of the table. Would you mind trading places? Many people say that they would gladly trade places with a celebrity, but I doubt they would enjoy the constant attention.
See also: place, trade
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

trade places

If two people trade places, each person puts themselves in the situation of the other person. There was a time in my life when I would have traded places with anyone because I believed that everyone was better than me. He plays the young heir to an oil fortune who trades places with a water-ski instructor.
See also: place, trade
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • change places
  • change/swap places
  • change places with
  • change places with (one)
  • table-hop
  • switch on
  • switched on
  • switch off
  • kiddie table
  • bring (something) to the table
References in classic literature
I wouldn't trade places with him if he had fifty years of life before him.
The headteacher and three pupils from a state comprehensive trade places with their equivalents at a public school that costs PS27,000 a year.
DISABLED Angela Buskie has offered to trade places with Iain Duncan Smith to help open his eyes to poverty.
If I could trade places with any BTR band member, I'd pick ...
Washington, Aug.9 ( ANI ): President Barack Obama took 'American exceptionalism' to a whole new level, after he suggested that the United States of America was the greatest country on Earth, and every other country would happily 'trade places' with the Western nation.
So in order to teach them a lesson, Peter and Lois challenge their offspring to trade places. Things appear to be going well for a while in the 'switcheroo', with Chris working at the brewery and Meg taking her mother's place as homemaker.
There are well over 400,000 workers on the Live Register who would gladly trade places with them any day.
CHARITY Business in the Community has launched its annual volunteering day - encouraging companies to trade places for a day to help their communities.
The Parrotts write that couples who effectively trade places experience increased levels of fun, passion and commitment and a decrease in nagging and conflict.
Discovering opportunities for adults to trade places with adolescents in the context of teaching is going to be a challenge from now on.
They may even trade places with some of the most recognizable brands in commercial real estate.
There was absolutely nothing Sharon and I would not have given to trade places with Sam, and that is something that any parent with a child who has cancer would say.
Michael Sutton will be leaving behind Newcastle-based design firm SUMO on Saturday to trade places with his opposite number at a design firm based in Greenville, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina, USA.
Billitteri mentions that because of high unemployment, French and German workers might trade places with their American counterparts.