back on your feet

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an idiom meaning having recovered from an illness, injury, financial setback, or personal crisis to a state of normal functioning and independence, derived from the literal image of someone who had been knocked down or bedridden rising to stand and walk again; being back on your feet implies the restoration of agency, mobility, and the capacity to manage one's own affairs after a period of dependence, incapacity, or vulnerability; the phrase is used in medical contexts to describe physical recovery, in financial contexts to describe recovery from debt or business failure, and in emotional contexts to describe recovery from grief or psychological crisis; it carries positive connotations of resilience and the return of self-sufficiency, and is often used by carers and supporters to mark the moment when the person they have been helping no longer needs their assistance