footloose and fancy-free
Free of responsibilities, including romantic commitments (a fact that is often highlighted when this phrase is used). I love being a single woman, so I intend to be footloose and fancy-free for a long time. Now that I have a family and a mortgage, I miss being footloose and fancy-free. Sure, I want to have kids and a family some day, but I'm really enjoying being footloose and fancy-free right now.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
footloose and fancy-free
Fig. without long-term responsibilities or commitments. All the rest of them have wives, but John is footloose and fancy-free. Mary never stays long in any job. She likes being footloose and fancy-free.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
footloose and fancy-free
Having no attachments, especially romantic ones, and free to do as one pleases. For example, When I was in my twenties, footloose and fancy-free, I would travel at the drop of a hat . Both of these words have long been used separately; their pairing dates only from the 1900s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
footloose and fancy-free
OLD-FASHIONEDIf someone is footloose and fancy-free, they are not married or in a long-term relationship, or they have very few responsibilities. He was footloose and fancy-free. He could go to parties and pubs on his own, and come and go as he pleased. Note: This term refers to a sail that could move about freely because the ropes holding it at the foot or bottom were loose.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
footloose and fancy-free
without any commitments or responsibilities; free to act or travel as you please. Footloose was used literally in the late 17th century to mean ‘free to move the feet’. The sense ‘without commitments’ originated in late 19th-century US usage. Fancy in fancy-free is used in the sense of ‘love’ or ‘the object of someone's affections’.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
ˌfootloose and fancy-ˈfree
free to go where you like or do what you want because you have no responsibilities: Here she was, at forty, footloose and fancy-free in New York.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
footloose and fancy-free
Unattached, especially in the sense of romantic involvement. The word footloose, meaning free to go anywhere, originated in the late seventeenth century. Fancy-free, meaning not in love (fancy once meant “in love”), dates from the sixteenth century. It was used by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2.2), where Oberon tells Puck, “But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft quench’d in the chaste beams of the watery moon, and the imperial votaress passed on, in maiden-meditation, fancy-free.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
footloose and fancy free
Unattached, especially romantically, and able to move and act without responsibilities. The “foot” is the bottom of a sail, and a sail that is footloose is free to move whichever way the wind blows. So is a person who is “footloose and fancy free,” at liberty to follow any and all whims. (Such a state sounds enviable, but keep in mind the fable about “The Grasshopper and the Ant.”)
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price