"walk a mile in someone's shoes" meaning in English

See walk a mile in someone's shoes in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-walk a mile in someone's shoes.ogg [Australia] Forms: walks a mile in someone's shoes [present, singular, third-person], walking a mile in someone's shoes [participle, present], walked a mile in someone's shoes [participle, past], walked a mile in someone's shoes [past]
Etymology: From walk + a + mile + in + [possessive pronoun] + shoes. Originally, and still chiefly, found in admonitions not to judge a person until one has walked a mile in that person's shoes. Etymology templates: {{m|en|walk}} walk, {{m|en|a}} a, {{m|en|mile}} mile, {{m|en|in}} in, {{m|en|shoe|shoes}} shoes Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=walk a mile in someone's shoes}} walk a mile in someone's shoes (third-person singular simple present walks a mile in someone's shoes, present participle walking a mile in someone's shoes, simple past and past participle walked a mile in someone's shoes)
  1. (idiomatic) To experience what someone has experienced. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-walk_a_mile_in_someone's_shoes-en-verb-6Vwk~XhE Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for walk a mile in someone's shoes meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "walk"
      },
      "expansion": "walk",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "a"
      },
      "expansion": "a",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "mile"
      },
      "expansion": "mile",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in"
      },
      "expansion": "in",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "shoe",
        "3": "shoes"
      },
      "expansion": "shoes",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From walk + a + mile + in + [possessive pronoun] + shoes. Originally, and still chiefly, found in admonitions not to judge a person until one has walked a mile in that person's shoes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "walks a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walking a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "walk a mile in someone's shoes"
      },
      "expansion": "walk a mile in someone's shoes (third-person singular simple present walks a mile in someone's shoes, present participle walking a mile in someone's shoes, simple past and past participle walked a mile in someone's shoes)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994, Colin Escott et al., Hank Williams: The Biography, Little, Brown and Company, published 1995, page 225",
          "text": "It's likely that he didn't begrudge what he had paid Marshall though, because he thought he had finally found a medical person who had walked a mile in his shoes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experience what someone has experienced."
      ],
      "id": "en-walk_a_mile_in_someone's_shoes-en-verb-6Vwk~XhE",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To experience what someone has experienced."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-walk a mile in someone's shoes.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7c/En-au-walk_a_mile_in_someone%27s_shoes.ogg/En-au-walk_a_mile_in_someone%27s_shoes.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/En-au-walk_a_mile_in_someone%27s_shoes.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "walk a mile in someone's shoes"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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      },
      "expansion": "walk",
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "a"
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      "expansion": "a",
      "name": "m"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "mile"
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      "expansion": "mile",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in"
      },
      "expansion": "in",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "shoe",
        "3": "shoes"
      },
      "expansion": "shoes",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From walk + a + mile + in + [possessive pronoun] + shoes. Originally, and still chiefly, found in admonitions not to judge a person until one has walked a mile in that person's shoes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "walks a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walking a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked a mile in someone's shoes",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "walk a mile in someone's shoes"
      },
      "expansion": "walk a mile in someone's shoes (third-person singular simple present walks a mile in someone's shoes, present participle walking a mile in someone's shoes, simple past and past participle walked a mile in someone's shoes)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994, Colin Escott et al., Hank Williams: The Biography, Little, Brown and Company, published 1995, page 225",
          "text": "It's likely that he didn't begrudge what he had paid Marshall though, because he thought he had finally found a medical person who had walked a mile in his shoes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experience what someone has experienced."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To experience what someone has experienced."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-walk a mile in someone's shoes.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7c/En-au-walk_a_mile_in_someone%27s_shoes.ogg/En-au-walk_a_mile_in_someone%27s_shoes.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/En-au-walk_a_mile_in_someone%27s_shoes.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "walk a mile in someone's shoes"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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