put (one's) foot down

To indicate that one is unyielding or inflexible in one's position or decision. The kids complained and complained when we refused to get a puppy, but we had to put our foot down. As a manager, you have to put your foot down sometimes, or your staff will walk all over you.

See also: down, foot, put

put your foot down

COMMON

1. If you put your foot down, you tell someone forcefully that they must do something or that they must not do something. Annabel went through a phase of saying: `I can do my homework and watch TV.' Naturally I put my foot down. He had planned to go skiing on his own, but his wife put her foot down.

2. If you put your foot down when you are driving, you start to drive faster. Finding a clear stretch of the motorway, he put his foot down.

See also: down, foot, put

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

put your foot down

1 adopt a firm policy when faced with opposition or disobedience. 2 make a motor vehicle go faster by pressing the accelerator pedal with your foot. British informal

See also: down, foot, put

put your ˈfoot down

(informal)
1 drive faster in a car: If you put your foot down, we might be home by seven o’clock.
2 use your authority to stop somebody doing something: When she asked if she could stay out until midnight, I put my foot down and insisted that she come home by eleven at the latest.

See also: down, foot, put

See also: