Language: en
Meaning: (countableanduncountable)Leatherthat is used to makeshoes.1922,Boot and Shoe Recorder: The Magazine of Fashion Footwear, volume81, Philadelphia, Pa.: King Publications (a subsidiary ofChilton Company),→OCLC, page86:Outside of patent leathers and specialties, I know of no other types ofshoe leatherswhich are commanding replacement costs today.1942October 12, “Is there a Bagpipe Player in the Audience?[Regal Shoes advertisement]”, inLIFE, volume13, number15, Chicago, Ill.:Time Inc.,→OCLC,page136:Naturally, this aristocrat ofshoe leatherscosts more than ordinary leather – and, for the past two years, it has been all but unobtainable in this country.1948, R. Turner Wilcox, “Twentieth-century Footwear”, inThe Mode in Footwear, New York, N.Y.:Charles Scribner's Sons,OCLC1356620; republished asThe Mode in Footwear: A Historical Survey with 53 Plates, Mineola, N.Y.:Dover Publications, 2008,ISBN978-0-486-46761-0, page 154:Notable in feminine footgear of the first two decades was the increasing number of differentshoe leathersconsisting of box calf, white calf, colored kids, buck and antelope.1952, F. P. Veitch, R. W. Frey, H. P. Holman,Leather Shoes: Selection and Care(U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin;1523), rev. edition, Washington, D.C.:United States Department of Agriculture,→OCLC,page 1:Shoe Leathers. Leather used in making shoes is of two kinds – bottom, or sole, leather and upper leather.2008, Robert L. Reitschel, Joseph F. Fowler, Alexander A. Fisher,Fisher's Contact Dermatitis, 6th edition, Hamilton, Ont.: B. C. Decker,→ISBN, page359:British authors have long suspected and documented that vegetable-tanned leather was responsible for many of their unexplainedshoe leather-positive patients.; (uncountable)Leather from which shoes are made that is worn out through walking.1874June 6,John Ruskin, “Letter XLIV”, inFors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume IV, Orpington, Kent:George Allen,→OCLC,pages166–167:In old times, if a Coniston peasant had any business at Ulverstone, he walked to Ulverstone; spent nothing butshoe-leatheron the road, drank at the streams, and if he spent a couple of batz when he got to Ulverstone, "it was the end of the world." But now, he would never think of doing such a thing! He first walks three miles in a contrary direction, to a railroad station, and then travels by railroad twenty-four miles to Ulverstone, paying two shillings fare.2011August 13, Peter Atkinson, “Save on shoe leather[letter]”, inThe Daily Telegraph(Travel)[1], archived fromthe originalon17 September 2011, pageT13:Save onshoe leather[letter title][…]Pounding the sidewalks can seriously wear you out.2015March 28, Jake Kerridge, “Solved! The greatest art theft in history”, inThe Daily Telegraph(Review)[2], archived fromthe originalon30 August 2015, pageR12:Many sleuths, both professional and amateur, have devoted years to unravelling the circumstances of the heist, but one man who has worn out moreshoe leatherthan most in pursuit of this mystery isStephen Kurkjian, aPulitzer Prize-winning reporter now retired after 40 years atThe Boston Globe.; ; (by extension,idiomatic)Thesweat of one's brow;effort;investigatoryeffort.They expended a lot ofshoe-leatherin hunting down every lead.2024, Barbara Perry (director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center), quoted in: Harry Bruinius,For Jimmy Carter, a life of service, defined by faith,in: The Christian Science Monitor, December 29 2024America desperately needed a Jimmy Carter in 1976 […] And so for him to come out of almost from nowhere to earn the nomination by sheershoe leatherin Iowa and New Hampshire, and to be the person outside of the establishment and to say, I’m not from Washington, I will never lie to you, I’m a born again Christian – what I say is that, he really did bring a close to the Watergate period.; ; Toughmeat, especially cheap meat.The school certainly wasn't breaking the bank by feeding us — when it wasn't gruel it wasshoe-leather.
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