wait for the other shoe to drop
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
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.
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.