from rags to riches

Idioms  

1. From being poor to being wealthy, especially through one's own efforts. For example, The invention catapulted the scientist from rags to riches. Horatio Alger (1834–1899) popularized this theme in some 130 best-selling novels, in which the hero, through hard work and thrift, pulled himself out of poverty to wealth and happiness.

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Example Sentences

The 1979 saga of a young woman's journey from rags to riches stayed on the New York Times' bestseller list for 43 weeks.

From BBC • Dec. 28, 2024

California tends to go from rags to riches, bounty to poverty when it comes to rain, Maue said.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 2, 2023

He “went from rags to riches and, like myself and many other members, is a small-business owner,” Ms. Boebert said in her nomination speech.

From New York Times • Jan. 5, 2023

At the highest levels, many athletes receive an opportunity to abandon poverty, to go from rags to riches.

From Washington Post • Nov. 2, 2020

The nineteenth-century economic creed had taught that hard work unlocked the door which led from rags to riches.

From The Black Experience in America by Coombs, Norman