put out to pasture
English
Etymology
From the practice of putting draft animals too old to work in a pasture.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
put out to pasture (third-person singular simple present puts out to pasture, present participle putting out to pasture, simple past and past participle put out to pasture)
- (informal) To make someone retire, especially due to advancing age.
- Synonym: put out to grass
- They've put John out to pasture and replaced him with someone who's got half his experience.
- 2021 April 20, Glenn Thrush, quoting George W. Bush, “George W. Bush calls the current G.O.P. ‘isolationist, protectionist’ and ‘nativist.’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- “But I’m just an old guy they put out to pasture — a simple painter,” added the 43rd president, who said he published the book to “elevate” the discourse around immigration.
- (informal) To discontinue something.
- That version of the program has been put out to pasture.
- 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 119:
- The other problem was that the electrical locomotives vibrated, […] The electrical locomotives were put out to pasture, the carriages were adapted, and Electrical Multiple Unit traction was introduced from 1903.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put out, to, pasture.
Translations
to make someone retire
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Further reading
- “put someone out to pasture”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “put out to pasture”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “put out to pasture”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “put sb out to pasture”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- “put someone out to pasture” (US) / “put someone out to pasture” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
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