English · Idiom Historical

another man's shoes

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

"To stand in another man's shoes" is to occupy the place of another. Among the ancient Northmen, when a man adopted a son, the person adopted put on the shoes of the adopter.

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Clothes Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “another man's shoes” mean?

"To stand in another man's shoes" is to occupy the place of another. Among the ancient Northmen, when a man adopted a son, the person adopted put on the shoes of the adopter.

Is “another man's shoes” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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