on one's shoulders

Idioms  

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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

on one's shoulders

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

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

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

From Miscellaneous Aphorisms; The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde

Instead of one bundle, one has two on one's shoulders, you understand?

From Yiddish Tales by Various

I've seen a great pudding come into the room all afire—just to remind one of the old country—when it has been so hot that one could hardly bear a shirt on one's shoulders.

From Harry Heathcote of Gangoil by Anthony Trollope

One should bear one's foe on one's shoulders as long as time is unfavourable.

From The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

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