Phrases & SayingsPeople and character
have tickets on yourself
Also: have tickets on oneself, tickets on himself/herself, tickets on oneself
To have an exaggerated opinion of your own importance, value or ability.
In a sentence
He’s had tickets on himself since that television interview.
Where it came from
The expression borrows the language of betting: a person backing themselves is imagined as holding tickets on their own success. Australian evidence belongs to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Initial era
- 1800–1899
- Where used
- Australia-wide