"pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Early 19th century US; attested 1834. In original use, often used to refer to pulling oneself over a fence, and implying that someone is attempting or has claimed some ludicrously far-fetched or impossible task. Presumably a variant on a traditional tall tale, as elaborated below. The shift in sense to a possible task appears to have developed in the early 20th century, and the use of the phrase to mean “a ludicrous task” continued into the 1920s.\nWidely attributed since at least 1901 to The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, (1781) by Rudolf Erich Raspe, where the eponymous Baron pulls himself out of a swamp by his own pigtail, though not by his bootstraps. The Adventures is primarily a collection of centuries-old tall tales, however, and using bootstraps may have arisen as a variant on the same theme.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pulls oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pull oneself up by one's bootstraps (third-person singular simple present pulls oneself up by one's bootstraps, present participle pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps, simple past and past participle pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Conservatism",
          "orig": "en:Conservatism",
          "parents": [
            "Ideologies",
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "english": "computing sense",
          "word": "bootstrap"
        },
        {
          "word": "bootstrappy"
        },
        {
          "word": "bootstrap paradox"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We can't get a loan, so we'll just have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1834 Oct. 4, Workingman's Advocate, p. 1",
          "text": "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn",
          "text": "Up to a point, civilization can lift itself up by its boot-tags. However unjustly society is organized, certain technical advances are bound to benefit the whole community, because certain kinds of goods are necessarily held in common.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities."
      ],
      "id": "en-pull_oneself_up_by_one's_bootstraps-en-verb-wzttKFhc",
      "links": [
        [
          "enterprise",
          "enterprise"
        ],
        [
          "setback",
          "setback"
        ],
        [
          "outside",
          "outside"
        ],
        [
          "help",
          "help"
        ],
        [
          "succeed",
          "succeed"
        ],
        [
          "effort",
          "effort"
        ],
        [
          "abilities",
          "ability"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "poverty is a state of mind"
        },
        {
          "word": "self-starter"
        },
        {
          "word": "rugged individualism"
        },
        {
          "word": "gibsmedat"
        },
        {
          "english": "government welfare aid",
          "tags": [
            "derogatory"
          ],
          "word": "Uncle Sugar"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps"
        },
        {
          "word": "lift oneself up by one's bootstraps"
        },
        {
          "word": "lift oneself up by one's own bootstraps"
        },
        {
          "word": "lift oneself up by one's own waistbands"
        },
        {
          "word": "lift oneself up by one's boot-tags"
        },
        {
          "word": "lift oneself up by one's own boot-tags"
        },
        {
          "word": "take oneself up by one's own ears"
        },
        {
          "word": "raise oneself up by one's bootstraps"
        },
        {
          "word": "raise oneself up by one's own bootstraps"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
          "word": "ottaa itseään niskasta kiinni"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
          "word": "a maga/saját erejéből boldogul"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "english": "by one's own bootstraps",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
          "word": "hjálparlaust"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "english": "by one's own bootstraps",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
          "word": "af eigin rammleik"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
          "word": "como Juan Palomo"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Rudolf Erich Raspe"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bf/En-au-pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps.ogg/En-au-pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/En-au-pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pull oneself up by one's bootstraps"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "english": "computing sense",
      "word": "bootstrap"
    },
    {
      "word": "bootstrappy"
    },
    {
      "word": "bootstrap paradox"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Early 19th century US; attested 1834. In original use, often used to refer to pulling oneself over a fence, and implying that someone is attempting or has claimed some ludicrously far-fetched or impossible task. Presumably a variant on a traditional tall tale, as elaborated below. The shift in sense to a possible task appears to have developed in the early 20th century, and the use of the phrase to mean “a ludicrous task” continued into the 1920s.\nWidely attributed since at least 1901 to The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, (1781) by Rudolf Erich Raspe, where the eponymous Baron pulls himself out of a swamp by his own pigtail, though not by his bootstraps. The Adventures is primarily a collection of centuries-old tall tales, however, and using bootstraps may have arisen as a variant on the same theme.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pulls oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pull oneself up by one's bootstraps (third-person singular simple present pulls oneself up by one's bootstraps, present participle pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps, simple past and past participle pulled oneself up by one's bootstraps)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "poverty is a state of mind"
    },
    {
      "word": "self-starter"
    },
    {
      "word": "rugged individualism"
    },
    {
      "word": "gibsmedat"
    },
    {
      "english": "government welfare aid",
      "tags": [
        "derogatory"
      ],
      "word": "Uncle Sugar"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Conservatism"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We can't get a loan, so we'll just have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1834 Oct. 4, Workingman's Advocate, p. 1",
          "text": "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn",
          "text": "Up to a point, civilization can lift itself up by its boot-tags. However unjustly society is organized, certain technical advances are bound to benefit the whole community, because certain kinds of goods are necessarily held in common.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "enterprise",
          "enterprise"
        ],
        [
          "setback",
          "setback"
        ],
        [
          "outside",
          "outside"
        ],
        [
          "help",
          "help"
        ],
        [
          "succeed",
          "succeed"
        ],
        [
          "effort",
          "effort"
        ],
        [
          "abilities",
          "ability"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Rudolf Erich Raspe"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bf/En-au-pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps.ogg/En-au-pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/En-au-pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps"
    },
    {
      "word": "lift oneself up by one's bootstraps"
    },
    {
      "word": "lift oneself up by one's own bootstraps"
    },
    {
      "word": "lift oneself up by one's own waistbands"
    },
    {
      "word": "lift oneself up by one's boot-tags"
    },
    {
      "word": "lift oneself up by one's own boot-tags"
    },
    {
      "word": "take oneself up by one's own ears"
    },
    {
      "word": "raise oneself up by one's bootstraps"
    },
    {
      "word": "raise oneself up by one's own bootstraps"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
      "word": "ottaa itseään niskasta kiinni"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
      "word": "a maga/saját erejéből boldogul"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "english": "by one's own bootstraps",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
      "word": "hjálparlaust"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "english": "by one's own bootstraps",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
      "word": "af eigin rammleik"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help",
      "word": "como Juan Palomo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pull oneself up by one's bootstraps"
}