let the grass grow under one's feet
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: lets the grass grow under one's feet
form: letting the grass grow under one's feet
form: let the grass grow under one's feet
form: let the grass grow under one's feet
form: let the grass grow round one's feet
Senses: examples: text: I haven't let the grass grow under my feet. I was wired for at 3:15, reached Yoxley Old Place at 5, conducted my investigation, was back at Charing Cross by the last train, and straighte to you by cab.
ref: 1904, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez:
text: Mr. Fiennes repeated his promise to run expresses between Paddington and Cardiff in 2hr. "We're not going to let the grass grow under our feet," he said in a reference to progress with the Severn Road Bridge, and predicted that the 2hr trains would be running "before very long".
ref: 1964 November, “News: London Cardiff in 2hr?”, in Modern Railways, page 349:
text: What happens when we let the grass grow under our feet for once and just spend a bit of time looking around without imagining that we've got all the answers and that no one before us had anything much to offer?
ref: 2008, Stephen Cottrell, Hit the Ground Kneeling: Seeing Leadership Differently, →ISBN, page 21:
text: He and Rebecca then found a secluded boardinghouse to which Will and Susannah would move on Monday. Before the westbound left on Saturday morning, McCaleb spent a few minutes alone with Will. “You'll be released from here Monday,” ... Don't let any grass grow under your feet in Cheyenne; once you're there, head for Box Elder Creek.”
ref: 2009, Ralph Compton, The Western Trail: The Trail Drive, →ISBN, page 61:
text: If you like being in there at the beginning of a company then get ready to bail out when the company starts to grow. Never let the grass grow under your feet. Jobs for life are history, so if you treat people right but they still want to move onto new things you can't stop them.
ref: 2010, Shaf Rasul, Secrets of a Serial Entrepreneur: A Business Dragon's Guide to Success, →ISBN:
text: She'd scrubbed up. Moved on. Stepped right over Phil, over his grave. For this was not a girl to let the grass grow under her feet, particularly the grass on a mound.
ref: 2011, Catherine Alliott, A Rural Affair, →ISBN:
text: One day the Churl said to him, “Go into the town for salt for my supper, take the short way across the pasture-field, and be sure not to let the grass grow under your feet.
ref: 2013, Padraic Colum, The King of Ireland's Son, →ISBN, page 137:
text: Rod didn't quite understand her reaction. 'I thought you were happy at Owl's Nest? I thought you loved it here?' 'I do. But we've been here long enough. It's been two years since it was finished. We always said we'd move on. Onwards and upwards, that's what you said. Don't let the grass grow under your feet, you said.
ref: 2014, Veronica Henry, Wild Oats, →ISBN:
text: His sense of humour, together with his rationalism and ideology, helped me enormously on my road to recovery. Bruce eventually convinced me of the need to move on. “Que sera sera,” he would often say to me. “Ya can't let the grass grow under yer feet, me old mate.”
ref: 2015, Douggie Barker, Catch Mumps at the Boot Sale, →ISBN:
glosses: To dally; to fail to make progress.
Related terms: a rolling stone gathers no moss
put down roots