wear out one's welcome

English

Alternative forms

• overstay one's welcome

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

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Verb

wear out one's welcome

1. (idiomatic) To behave in an offensive, burdensome, or tiresome manner, with the result that one's continued presence is unwanted within a residence, commercial establishment, or social group.
   • 1889, Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Sylvie and Bruno, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 224:

     No: he feared to "wear out his welcome," he said: they had "seen enough of him for one while": [...]

   • 1921, William MacLeod Raine, Tangled Trails, ch. 30:

     "Well, I don't aim to have no truck with you at all," blustered the fat man. "You've just naturally wore out yore welcome with me before ever you set down. I'll ask you to go right now."

   • 2005, "Presidential Cat Tales," Time, 3 Nov.:

     The pet, appropriately named Tiger, wore out his welcome very quickly. "Evidently Tiger was a real 'Conan the Destroyer' beastie," reports Harding.

Translations

to make one's presence unwanted

• Finnish: lakata olemasta tervetullut (literally “to cease being welcome”)
• Polish: nadużyć gościnności (literally “to abuse hospitality”)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: злоупотреблять гостеприимством impf (zloupotrebljatʹ gostepriimstvom)