fall all over oneself

fall all over oneself idiom
Also, fall over backwards. Make an inordinate effort to do something, try very hard or eagerly. For example, They fell all over themselves to be helpful, but only got in the way, or She fell over backwards trying to please her boss, but it got her nowhere. The first of these hyperbolic expressions dates from the late 1800s, the second from the mid-1900s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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