kicking one's heels
Waiting with impatience
To kick one's heels is to wait idly, usually with impatience or frustration.
The image is of someone with nothing to do, restlessly swinging their feet: I spent an hour kicking my heels in the waiting room.
Chiefly British.
The American equivalent is cooling one's heels.
- fidgetingRestless minor movements
- stagnationAbsence of flow or progress
- in limboState of uncertainty
- on holdTemporarily not proceeding
- standing byReady to act
delay · expectation · boredom · impatience · marking time · passivity · holding off · pacing · sighing · dawdling · frustration · suspension · postponement · vegetating · procrastination · killing time · hanging about · loafing
kicking one's heelsbusy as a bee
Idiom for tireless activity
rushed off one's feet · hard at work · industrious · occupied · active
kicking one's heelsgetting things done
Accomplishing tasks effectively
productive · seizing the day · making headway · making progress · cracking on
kick, kicks, kicked, kicker, kickers, ones, heel, heels, heeled