Home › Glossary › Letter P

Push one's luck

Idiomatic Phrase
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To take excessive risks beyond reasonable limits; warns against pushing fortunate circumstances too far, potentially transforming success into failure through greed or overconfidence.

Detailed Definition
Push one's luck means to take a risk beyond what is wise after already benefiting from good fortune or tolerance. In poetry, the idiom can describe gamblers, lovers, children, rebels, tricksters, or speakers who test the patience of fate. It suggests that luck has limits, and that repeated success can breed dangerous confidence. A poet may use it comically for mischief or seriously for hubris. The phrase is useful for exploring chance, restraint, entitlement, and the moment fortune turns.
Example
Example in poetry:
A comic poem might warn the thief not to push his luck after escaping the watch once already; In a love poem, the speaker pushes her luck by asking for one more impossible promise; The phrase means to take too many risks after being fortunate; A poet can use it for suspense or folly.
Additional Notes
Push one’s luck means take too many risks after already benefiting from fortune or tolerance. In poetry, it can describe gamblers, lovers, children, tricksters, politicians, or anyone testing limits. The phrase personifies luck as something that may resist being pushed too far. Students should ask where boldness becomes arrogance. It pairs well with dice, cards, weather, mercy, and the fragile boundary between charm and consequence.
Also Known As
risk too much
Skip to main content