on one's shoulders

1. As one's responsibility, as in The king carries his entire country on his shoulders, or The success of the conference rests on Nancy's shoulders. This metaphoric use of shoulders as the burden-bearing part of the body dates from the late 1300s.

Example Sentences

Henderson said he expects family members to be there to help “support me and hold me up because it is an earthshaking thing to have this honor placed on one’s shoulders.”

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That was the curse of dreaming: One woke to pallid reality, with neither wings on one’s shoulders nor goddess in one’s arms.

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On Me Jacob Jonas The Company explores the concept of carrying the weight of the world on one’s shoulders; musicians Tim Hecker and Kara-Lis Coverdale also perform.

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But as that group meets this week to discuss, among other things, the timing of the country's first interest rate hike in nine years, it's important to keep in mind that carrying the weight of the world's largest economy on one's shoulders is hardly an easy – or gratifying – task.

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One's days are too brief to take the burden of another's sorrows on one's shoulders.

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