# pull oneself up by one's bootstraps

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/pull-oneself-up-by-ones-bootstraps
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities.

## Examples

- He lost everything but pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
- After the factory closed, she pulled herself up by her bootstraps and started her own small business from home.
- Orphaned at sixteen and penniless, the young man pulled himself up by his bootstraps, working night shifts to fund his education and eventually build the empire that bore his name.

## Origin

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. Widely 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. (disputed)

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.