Meaning & use
vote with your feet
Last updated
Meanings
phraseidiomfigurative
to show what you think by leaving a place or stopping your support, rather than by speaking or voting.
Grammar: Used as a verb phrase; the possessive pronoun changes with the subject: vote with your feet, voted with her feet.
Patterns
- vote with your feet
- vote with your feet by doing something
When the company cut paid holidays, many workers voted with their feet and found jobs elsewhere.
Shoppers are voting with their feet: sales at the old store have fallen by half.
Students voted with their feet and stopped attending the lectures.
phraseidiomfigurative
to choose something by actually going there or using it, instead of just saying you prefer it.
Grammar: Often used about customers or audiences choosing one product, service, or place over another.
Patterns
- vote with your feet for something
- vote with your feet against something
Readers are voting with their feet for the new evening edition.
If the service is bad, customers vote with their feet and go to a competitor.
Common combinations
- voted with their feet
- Fans voted with their feet after ticket prices doubled.
- vote with your wallet
- Some people say you can vote with your wallet by choosing ethical brands.
- voting with their feet against something
- Parents are voting with their feet against the new school rules.
- let your feet do the voting
- When the food is bad, let your feet do the voting and eat somewhere else.
Synonyms and how they differ
- walk out
- This means to leave a place, often in protest, but it does not always suggest a lasting choice or change of support.
- boycott
- This means to refuse to buy or use something as a protest; it is more organized and public than voting with your feet.
- take your business elsewhere
- This is a more direct, business-focused way of saying you stop using a company because you are unhappy.
Commonly confused: vote with your feet or vote with your hands?
vote with your feet vs vote with your hands
This is not a common English idiom. The usual expression uses 'feet' because you show your choice by walking away or going somewhere.
Practice
When the airline canceled thousands of flights, passengers ______ and booked with other carriers.
Choose one answer.
'Voted with their feet' is the fixed idiom meaning they showed their disapproval by taking their business elsewhere. The other options are not standard English expressions.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “vote with your feet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.