Meaning
Behaving as though you were more important, powerful, or capable than you really are; conceited on the strength of new status or early success. Usually said critically of someone getting above themselves, and frequently in progressive forms with get. Chiefly British and informal; American English prefers the britches variant. Informal and disapproving; used of arrogance produced by sudden success or status. Regional use: British English (clothing origin).
Origin
The image is of an ego that has outgrown its footwear: the swaggering person no longer fits the humble boots they actually occupy. Grammarist documents that the boots form first appeared in the 1860s in both England and America, surviving now mainly in the United Kingdom, while its American cousin too big for one's britches or breeches is older, known from Davy Crockett's 1835 An Account of Col. Crockett's Tour to the North and Down East and probably earlier. Wiktionary glosses the idiom as far less important or capable than one thinks oneself to be. Both forms remain ordinary living speech.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- getting too big for your boots
- too big for one's britches
- too big for your breeches
Usage Examples
- Since the promotion, Ravi has been getting too big for his boots, skipping the briefings he once chaired.
- The band got too big for their boots after one hit and began demanding a stadium-sized fee.
- Her cousins thought she was too big for her boots when she started the choir, until it filled the town hall.