push the boat out
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Be lavish in your spending.
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).
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.