stand on someone's shoulders

present singular third person stands on someone's shoulders · participle present standing on someone's shoulders · participle past stood on someone's shoulders · past stood on someone's shoulders

1. idiomaticTo build on the previous discoveries or creativity of someone.

   What then can we say of the relevance of Classical languages and literature, Greek and Latin; what reason can we offer for the study of long dead languages. The answer is much in every way. For better or worse, we stand on the shoulders of the ancients, if not at their feet.

   2012, Andrew J. Schatkin, chapter 4, in Essays on the Christian Worldview and Others Political, Literary, and Philosophical, page 107

   1 more example

   On this day, as the world watches your sojourn here, / I ask with simple courtesy, “Have you looked within yourself?” / If you had, then you would know who you are / and that you stand on the shoulders of all your ancestors / who have prepared the path for your journey. / Look within, and then look forward. […]

   2020, Jimmy McJamerson Ph.D., On the Shoulders of Our Ancestors: African American History Through Historical Poetic Verse