Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a prison cell.

1946

Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 301: They locked me in a ratty shoebox of a cell.

(US) a shoe salesman.

1926		Grenville News (SC) 9 Nov. 4/7: ‘Do you know that a shoe-dog / Has an awful trying job — / When he tries to sell footear / To a selfish howling mob.
1936		Harper’s Mag. 174 108: On a famous Friday one shoe dog surpassed all records by selling arch-supporters to sixty per cent of the customers [...] The average shoe dog takes pride in his ability to fit quickly.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 127: And then I became a shoe-dog myself.
1970		R. Lemon Troubled American n.p.: I’m just a shoe dog, [...] I’ve been peddling shoes all my life.
1994		George Pelecanos [title] Shoedog.
2002		S.G. Bloom Inside the Writer’s Mind 76: The old man was a shoe-dog. His domain was a little shoe store in an industrial town.
2010		L. Gutkind Truckin’ with Sam 132: His attempts at intimacy were awkward, but he caressed his customer's feet—which made him a natural as a ‘shoe dog’.
2016		Chicago Trib. 5 June 4/7: ‘Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike.

to cuckold.

c.1650

R. Brathwait Barnabees Journal (1818 ) 57: Venus swore it, She’d shooe-horn her Vulcans forehead.

(S.Afr. black) chicken intestines, as used in cooking.

1982

cited in J. & W. Branford Dict. S. Afr. Eng. (1991).

ground-level, unglamourous, physically demanding.

2007

A.C. Shepard Woodward and Bernstein 77: The book could illustrate the hard work involved in shoe-leather reporting.

creaking shoes or boots.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

tight shoes; thus in the shoemaker’s stocks, wearing tight shoes.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Shoe-makers-stocks pincht with strait Shoes.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Shoemaker’s stocks. New, or strait shoes. I was in the shoemaker’s stocks; i.e. had on a new pair of shoes that were too small for me.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1841		Perthshire Courier 21 Jan. 4/6: The old proverb is, getting out of the ‘shoemaker’s stocks’ [...] and a better fate commences [for] the feet.
1850		Western Courier 3 July 1/5: Pretty little feet should not be distorted by the ‘shoemaker’s stocks’.

see under polish n.

(US Und.) a petty thief.

1971–2

C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 213: shoe thief, n. – a petty thief.

(US) to tease, to banter with, to attack verbally; euph. version of break someone’s balls under balls n.

2006		T. Kelly Empire Rising [ebook] ‘I’m just breaking your shoes, Johnny. Don’t get touichy on me’.
2019		A. Cotto Domino Effect 81: ‘Relax [...] I’m just breaking your shoes a little.’ ‘Yeah, yeah,’ he cooled himself. ‘I know’.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 40: ‘Calm down, Frank,’ Aniello said. ‘I’m breaking your shoes’.

(US Und.) to jump bail.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 220: bought new shoes—Jumped a bail bond.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 38/2: Buy new shoes. To jump bail, parole, probation, etc.

(US) to act in a purposeful manner.

1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 68: Hell! This wasn’t buying the baby any shoes; this wasn’t getting his spiel done.
1976		L. Simpson Lady and Travelling Salesman 60: ‘This won’t buy the baby new shoes, eh Harry?’ ‘I’m all behind,’ Merryweather said.
1989		C. Dale Sheep’s Clothing 267: Well, all this talking won’t buy the baby new shoes. I’d best get on with things.
1990		S. Daniels Beside Herself 13: Well, this won’t buy the baby new shoes. I’d better get the Hoover.

to be hanged.

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Rabelais IV xlv: Whoever refused to do this should presently swing for it and die in his shoes.
1688		‘Reading Skirmish’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 375: They call a thing a Three-Legged Mare; / where they will fit each Neck with a Noose; / Then with our Beads to say our last Prayer, / after all this to Dye in our Shooes.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Die like a Dog, to be hang’d . . . Die on a Fish-day, or in his shoes, the same.
1726		A. Smith Memoirs of... Jonathan Wild 19: That precious Knot! which made the precious Noose, / When Jonathan [Wild] for haste, dy’d in his Shoes.
1742		Branston in Walpole Letters to Mann 1(1833) 180: At the end of the walk hung a rogue on a gibbet! He beheld it and wept, for it caus’d him to muse on Full many a Campbell, that died with his shoes on [F&H].
1742–4		R. North Lives of the Norths (1826) I 4: He used to say George (his son) ‘would die in his shoes’.
1826		Cambridge Chron. 28 July 2/4: When the rope was adjusted round his neck [...] he threw his shoes from off his feet [...] in consequence of a vulgar expression [...] ‘that he will die with his shoes on’.
1837		R. Barham ‘The Execution’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1840) 301: There is M’Fuze, / And Lieutenant Tregooze, / And there is Sir Carnaby Jenks of the Blues, / All come to see a man ‘die in his shoes!’.
[1850		Fife Herald 10 Jan. 2/4: But for his cowardice, there would have been occasion to pray that he might die ‘without his shoes’].
1860		Manchester Times 15 Sept. 5/2: ‘He always said he should come to die with his — shoes on for my sake’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict. 287: Shoes ‘to die in one’s shoes,’ to be hanged. In the old hanging days a highwayman would often kick off his shoes when the rope was round his neck, so as ? oh, vain and impotent attempt! ? to defeat the prophecy that had foreshadowed his present position.
1883		Illus. London News 27 Jan. 87/1: Do you remember the old story of the lady whose husband was doomed to ‘die with his shoes on’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 73: Shoes, ‘to die with one’s shoes on,’ to be hanged.
1899		Bristol Mercury 28 Jan. 9/4: ‘As sure as I’m a livin’ woman, ye’ll die in yer shoes’.
1913		Morpeth Herald 11 July 11/2: She became indignant [...] and concluded by wishing the sergeant would die with his shoes on.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 47: shoes, to die in one’s. To die by violence.
1933		Leeds Mercury 18 Dec. 5/6: Rotherham [...] never ties his shoe laces so he will not die with his shoes on.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 64: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] to be hanged – die in shoes.

the feet.

1873		Sl. Dict. 156: Everlasting shoes, the feet. The barefooted children about Seven Dials, and other low quarters of London, are said to wear everlasting shoes and stockings. Another expression in connexion with this want is, ‘the shoes and stockings their mothers gave them.’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 7 Dec. 1/3: A barefooted boy being. told he had ‘everlasting boots’ on, said he hoped, when he grew big he wouldn’t have to wear the same sort of stuff for pants.
1890		C. Hindley Vocab. and Gloss. in True Hist. of Tom and Jerry.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1918		Hully Dly Mail 13 Mar. 3/2: Most of the Arabs wear those everlasting shoes — bare feet.

to become drunk.

1967–8

Baker et al. CUSS 195: Shoes on, got the Drunk.

(US black) to put blame where it does not belong.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

to place blame where it duly belongs.

1837		Athlone Sentinel 9 June 4/4: It is an unpleasing task to to blame those we so much delight to honour [...] I gladly pass to other topics, after thus stopping for a moment to ‘put the shoe on the right foot’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1914		Sussex Agric. Exp. 10 Sept. 2/5: People did not go to Church; this was not the fault of the parson, but because people did not want to. Let them put the shoe on the right foot.
1934		Waterford Standard 15 Sept. 7/1: It is high time we got our own back. Put the shoe on the right foot.

to walk.

1975

‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 44: I [...] started to shoe it up and down Oxford Street on a cold, damp day in February.

(US) low in a hierarchy.

2018

(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 30: [T]his [i.e. the JFK assassination] wasn’t just another ho-hum murder, some shoe-leather wiseguy popped in a back alley.

see ride the shoe leather express under ride v.

a phr. meaning that is another matter.

1838		New Sporting Mag. Sept. 149: But that’s another pair of shoes, as we say in France, and I'll vip off, and talk to you about what consarnsus more closely .
1845		R.S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall I 281: But that’s beside the question; another pair o’ shoes, as we say in France.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 197: Ah! that’s another pair of shoes altogether, as we say in France.
1868		W.K. Wigram Five Hundred Pounds Reward 44: ‘Oh, if you dislike him,’ returned Mrs. Springletop, pretending to misunderstand, ‘that’s another pair of shoes altogether!’.
1876		Gent’s Mag. 624: He’s all there, if that’ll ease their mind. But where he is — that’s another pair of shoes.
1897		H. Caine Christian 504: Ah, that’s another pair of shoes altogether, dear.
1904		G. Fenn Ocean Cat’s Paw (2008) 59: ‘That’s another pair of shoes, as the Frenchies say,’ and the skipper went up on deck.
1914		C. & A.M. Williamson It Happened in Egypt 97: I’m sincerely delighted to see you — for my own sake. For yours — well, that’s another pair of shoes!
1933		J.B. Priestley I’ll Tell 151: That’s another pair of shoes altogether, as the sayin’ is.
1942		W.V. Wilkins Seven Tempest 134: ‘W-hoy, that’s another pair of shoes . . . that’s another pair of shoes!’ As he spoke he shot a swift glance at Seven from under lowered eyelids .

see with one hand (tied behind one’s back) under hand n.¹

(US short order) of one’s food/drink purchase, takeaway.

1966

in Newark (OH) Advocate 21 May 3/3–4: with the shoes on -- order to be taken out.

(UK Und.) a warning cry uttered by a thief to his confederate on sighting the police.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 30: shoe leather Said by thieves when any one is coming.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1869		Australasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: ‘Shoe leather!’ is to give warning.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: ‘Shoe leather’ means someone approaches.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 72: Shoe Leather, a thief’s warning notice of some one coming.