Put your foot down means to be firm: to forbid something decisively or insist on what you want. It is usually about a parent, a boss or a neighbour who put up with something for a long time and then said: enough. In British English the phrase has a second meaning: to press the accelerator and drive faster. The idiom is too informal for an essay; take a firm stand works better there.
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put + my/your/his/her + foot down (about + noun); put your foot down and + verb; UK: put your foot down = drive faster
- My sister kept borrowing my car without asking, so I finally put my foot down.
- When the kids started staying up past midnight, their dad put his foot down.
- We were late for the ferry, so Tom put his foot down on the motorway.
What changed
First versionWhen my flatmate started inviting friends over every night, I put my leg down.
RevisionWhen my flatmate started inviting friends over every night, I put my foot down.
In some languages one word covers both leg and foot, so put my leg down is an easy slip. But the idiom only uses foot, the part of the body you plant firmly on the ground. With leg, the phrase loses its figurative meaning and sounds like a description of a movement. In the corrected version, leg was replaced with foot.
When you are driving, put your foot down means to speed up: We're late, put your foot down! The context tells you which meaning is intended: if the talk is about a car and speed, it is the accelerator; if it is about rules and bans, it is firmness.
Your turn
My son wanted to skip school for a concert, but I ___ and said no.
Show the answer
put my foot down — The parent firmly refused to let the child skip school, so the answer is put my foot down. Put my foot in it means to say something embarrassing by accident, and nobody said anything awkward here.
Think of a time when you firmly told a child, a colleague or a neighbour that enough was enough. Say what was bothering you and what you demanded.
My neighbour kept parking in front of my garage, so I put my foot down and told him to park on the street.
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