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Too smart for your own britches

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on December 05, 2007

In Reply to: Too smart for your own britches posted by Kathleen on December 05, 2007

: Where does the phrase, "You're too smart for your own britches" come from?

It's a hybrid of two older idioms:
- "Too big for one's breeches/boots", meaning "conceited, overconfident, full of one's own importance"
- "Too smart/clever for one's own good", meaning "too clever by half; full of overclever notions that will bring one to harm"

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