English · Idiom Candidate

wait for the other shoe to drop

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To wait for the inevitable next event or consequence

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đợi sự kiện hoặc hậu quả không thể tránh khỏi tiếp theo

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: wait for a second shoe to fall

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop since the company announced layoffs

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Clothes

Common questions

What does “wait for the other shoe to drop” mean?

To wait for the inevitable next event or consequence Literally: wait for a second shoe to fall

Is “wait for the other shoe to drop” formal or informal?

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

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