Meaning:
To spend generously. To spend more than one is normally accustomed to doing,
often to mark a special occasion.
Background:
This phrase originates with the literal meaning, that is, pushing boats from
wherever they are beached and into the water. People have for centuries built
boats that were too large for an individual to move. Helping a seaman to push
the boat out was an act of generosity - a similar to the modern-day act to
helping to push a car that is broken down.
The phrase became used in UK nautical circles to mean `buy a round of drinks`
sometime during the 1930s.
By 1946, John Irving had listed the term as Royal Navy slang,
"Push the boat out, to, a boatwork term used to imply paying for a 'round
of drinks'."
More recently, `push the boat out' has been used more generally and has come
to mean `behave extravagantly; making a purchase that is rather beyond what
one can afford'.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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My friend Louis played a great defense game as he had three kids to support. He
drove a 12-year-old Honda Civic, remodeled his own house, and with the help of a
makeup mirror, cut his own hair. He rarely pushed the boat out, except when it
came to ultra marathons.
He turned into a running fiend at the tender age of 52 and over time his wife
and kids joined, first to cheer him on and then beside him. The family traveled
and raced somewhere in the country every month or two. Last year, the
65-year-old came back from a visit to Madeira (Portugal), where his folks lived,
and showed me the insane rocky trails of a 100-miler he'd run on the island.
One more thing about him. All the years we worked together, I never saw him
sick.
