get off one's tail

get off one's tail idiom
Also, get off one's butt. Stop loafing and start doing something. For example, Get off your tail and help your mother, or I should get off my butt, but I'm exhausted. Neither slangy expression, with its allusion to the buttocks, is considered polite.

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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