Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

If your boots are too small for your feet, you can change them (the
boots)
But if you are "too big for your boots", that's different :-)
That means you're conceited, pleased with yourself.
And that's no good  :)

"When you lose your humility and become big-shot weisenheimers... a
little too big for your boots [...] That, boys and girls, is when I
shall insist you take my name off the door  And by golly, it will be
taken off the door"
(Leo Burnett, founder of the Leo Burnett advertising agency,
addressing Leo Burnett employees)
http://www.ciadvertising.org/SA/fall_02/adv382j/codepink/project2/speech.html

(weisenheimer = an upstart who makes conceited, sardonic, insolent
comments)

Some more "too big for your boots":

"Keep your feet on the ground and don't get too big for your boots"

Or, speaking to a boy:

"You're getting too big for your boots, young
man, but you're not too old for a good spanking"

But you can also read the same expression in a slightly different,
ecological sense: if your "eco-footprint" is "too big for your boots",
then you are using too much of the Earth's resources!

"Eco-footprint"
"Are you too big for your boots? How heavily do you tread upon the
world? Let's see how you measure up"
"Your ecological footprint is the amount of land it takes to support
your way of life, your lifestyle"
"The worldwide average per capita footprint is 24 hectares, or 6 acres
If we leave only 12% of the biosphere for other species, there are
less than 2 hectares available per person, or 5 acres each -- this
means that we humans overshoot the mark by at least 20%"
[...]
"The ecological footprint of the average American is 12 hectares, 30
acres The average Canadian needs one third less, and the average
Italian 55% less"
http://journeytoforever.org/edu_footprint.html

--
Enrico C  ~  No native speaker