English · Idiom Attested

push the boat out

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Be lavish in your spending.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Chi tiêu một cách hoang phí

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

From the physical joys of fine wines, gourmet foods and making love to the cerebral delights of a trip to the theatre, cinema or ballet this is your chance to push the boat out.

‘ By pushing the boat out unilaterally,’ says Weir Group's Ron Garrick, ‘ the Government has put us at a severe disadvantage compared with our German and American counterparts.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Topics: Sea & boats

Common questions

What does “push the boat out” mean?

Be lavish in your spending.

Is “push the boat out” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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