Meaning
Recovered and independent again after illness, injury, or some setback such as debt, failure, or hardship. It covers both returning to health and regaining financial or personal stability, and usually appears with be or get. Neutral and optimistic; ubiquitous in health, finance, and personal-difficulty contexts. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The image is standing versus lying down: sickness lays a person low, so recovery means being up, standing, and able to act for oneself again. The American Heritage Idioms dictionary dates 'on one's feet' in the plain standing sense to the mid-1400s and the recovery sense, listed as 'back on one's feet', to about 1800. Oxford's learner's dictionaries define the modern idiom as being completely well or back to a normal state after illness or trouble, with the example of someone being back on their feet again, and the extended financial and general-hardship use is now fully standard. No competing or disputed origin stories attach to it; the metaphor is transparent and the phrase has simply broadened from bodily recovery to recovery of any kind.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- back on one's feet again
- be back on your feet
- get back on your feet
- up on your feet again
Usage Examples
- It took months of physiotherapy, but Grandpa is finally back on his feet.
- A small emergency grant helped the shop get back on its feet after the fire.
- Once the cast comes off, you should be back on your feet within a fortnight.