Nuance Dictionary / Social Situations
발을 빼다 Bareul ppaeda
Cleverly cutting ties and pulling your capital out of a corporate venture or failing project before the ship sinks.
What does 발을 빼다 mean?
발을 빼다 (Bareul ppaeda) means: Cleverly cutting ties and pulling your capital out of a corporate venture or failing project before the ship sinks.
Textbooks teach you this literally means 'to pull one's foot out,' but in the boardroom, it's about self-preservation. Natives reach for this when a business deal smells like a disaster and they want to ghost the liability without getting legally entangled. Learners often think it's just about quitting, but *발을 빼다* carries that sly, calculated energy of dodging a falling knife just in time.
Other sides of 발을 빼다
◆ Avoiding Trouble & Illicit Affairs — Textbooks love to teach this as a clean corporate exit, but natives instinctively reach for it when the drama gets too hot to handle. It carries a sharp scent of self-preservation, betrayal, or cowardly escape from a sinking ship—whether that ship is an illegal side hustle, a toxic friend group, or a messy affair. Learners often misuse it as a polite way to say 'I'm resigning,' completely missing the dramatic, 'I'm getting out before the police/gossip reaches me' undercurrent.
🎙️ 발을 빼다는 표기 그대로 읽지 않아요 — 실제로는 [바를 빼다]로 소리나요 (연음법칙). 발음 연습하기 →
How it's actually used
- 더 손해 보기 전에 그 사업에서 빨리 발을 빼는 게 상책이야.
Deo sonhae bogi jeone geu saeob-eseo ppalli bareul ppaeneun ge sangchaek-iya.
Pulling your feet out of that business fast before taking more losses is the best policy.
💡 Shows the pragmatic urgency of cutting losses in a failing commercial venture. - 투자자들 사이에서 불안감이 커지면서 하나둘씩 발을 빼기 시작했어요.
Tujjadeul sai-eseo bul-angam-i keojimyeonseo hanadulssik bareul ppaegi sijakhaesseoyo.
As anxiety grew among investors, they started pulling out one by one.
💡 Illustrates how institutional or individual investors quietly withdraw capital when risk spikes. - 프로젝트가 이 지경이 됐으니, 지금이라도 발을 빼야 뒤탈이 없습니다.
Purojekteuga i jigyeong-i dwaesseuni, jigeumirado bareul ppaeya dwital-i eopseumnida.
Since the project has reached this state, pulling out even now is the only way to avoid future fallout.
💡 Emphasizes preemptively shielding oneself from corporate blame and legal backlash.
Related words in Social Situations
비행기 태우다 Bihaeng-gi taeuda보통 bo-tong보기 좋은 떡이 먹기도 좋다 Bogi joeun tteogi meokgi-do jota보기에는 bogieneun병 주고 약 준다 Byeong jugo yak junda