pull your weight

/ˌpʊl jɔː ˈweɪt/NEUTRAL · C2

Meaning

to do your fair share of the work

Examples

1Everyone on the stall pulls their weight, even on the quiet days.
2If one person refuses to pull their weight, the whole project slips.
3Tom's flatmates complained that he never pulled his weight with the cleaning.
4The coach expects every player to pull their weight at training.
5Are the volunteers pulling their weight, or is Priya doing everything?

Grammar

Both pull and the possessive change: the possessive matches the subject (my, his, their). Keep weight singular and with no article.

Similar in meaning

carry the can cut corners

More idioms about work and careers

All 20 idioms and the topic quiz →

snowed underhaving far too much work to deal with go the extra mileto make more effort than people expect get the sackto be dismissed from your job burn the midnight oilto work very late into the night red tapeofficial rules that make things slow think outside the boxto think in a new and creative way

English Idioms

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