write one's own ticket

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

write one's own ticket (third-person singular simple present writes one's own ticket, present participle writing one's own ticket, simple past wrote one's own ticket, past participle written one's own ticket)

1. (idiomatic) To be empowered to choose whatever job, financial arrangement, or course of action one desires.
   • 1925 November 3, “Offers of 15 to 1 on Walker Go Begging”, in New York Times, page 2:

     Mr. DeChadenedes said that any one wishing to back the Republican candidate could write his own ticket and name his own price.

   • 2002 August 12, Lee Siegel, “Long Live the King”, in Time:

     Parker figured that in the interim, the record companies would sell out their stock of Elvis' recordings, and that the King could write his own ticket when he returned, in both the recording and the film industries. Parker was right.

References

• “write one's own ticket”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.