That is, we pulled ourselves up by our own boot straps!

We had a team meeting and decided to take this thing by the boot straps and come ready to play.

-' Thane's spirits had sunk to the level of his boot straps.

She calls her book the story of "a kid who had a lot of problems and was misguided and finally pulled herself up by her own boot straps."

We glorify people who've pulled themselves up by their boot straps by any means possible.

They rested at midnight, an uneasy pause where they found themselves listening to the silence as they rubbed aching muscles and tightened boot straps.

"Real boot straps," Hiram Black said.

I love that about her; that she's willing to pick herself up by the boot straps.

"And you can't pull yourself up by your own boot straps," Seaton interrupted.

"Boys, we were in the deepest of holes there, and we had to lift ourselves out almost by our own boot straps."