"which foot the shoe is on" meaning in English

See which foot the shoe is on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Audio: En-au-which foot the shoe is on.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} which foot the shoe is on
  1. (idiomatic) Which point of view is considered or whose interests are used as a basis. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: what foot the shoe is on, whose foot the shoe is on Related terms: the shoe is on the other foot
    Sense id: en-which_foot_the_shoe_is_on-en-phrase-TjL16x2P Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for which foot the shoe is on meaning in English (2.9kB)

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      "expansion": "which foot the shoe is on",
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1915, Hannah Kent Schoff, The Wayward Child: A Study of the Causes of Crime, Bobbs-Merrill Co., p. 22 (at archive.org)",
          "text": "A whole lot depends on whose foot the shoe is on. I have noticed some of these fellows who speak about sentiment do not object so much to it when it works their way."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1948 December 9, “Shoe on the Other Foot”, in Milwaukee Journal, retrieved 2015-08-14, page 18",
          "text": "As usual, it makes a difference which foot the shoe is on. All too often the farmer has been willing to vote for legislation as long as he was exempted […] But he doesn't like it when it is proposed that laws he supports when they apply to others also be applied to him.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Raymond Barber, Don't Look Now, But Your Attitude is Showing, page 105",
          "text": "The little girl said to her mother, \"Mother, why is it when you are cross, you say it's your nerves; and when I'm nervous, you say I'm cross?\" It depends on which foot the shoe is on, doesn't it?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 July 28, Jeff Stein, “Nonprofits Seek to Keep Communities Intact Amid Rampant Gentrification”, in New York Nonprofit Media, retrieved 2015-08-14",
          "text": "Some of those involved with the Broadway Triangle proposal, however, dispute the coalition’s claims that the project unfairly excludes minority residents.\n“It all depends on which foot the shoe is on,” said Rabbi David Niederman […] “Other groups are trying to dilute the chances of Jewish families getting access to affordable apartments by trying to include another large community board in the development.”",
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        "Which point of view is considered or whose interests are used as a basis."
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        "(idiomatic) Which point of view is considered or whose interests are used as a basis."
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          "word": "the shoe is on the other foot"
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        {
          "word": "what foot the shoe is on"
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          "word": "whose foot the shoe is on"
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      "tags": [
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  "word": "which foot the shoe is on"
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        {
          "ref": "1915, Hannah Kent Schoff, The Wayward Child: A Study of the Causes of Crime, Bobbs-Merrill Co., p. 22 (at archive.org)",
          "text": "A whole lot depends on whose foot the shoe is on. I have noticed some of these fellows who speak about sentiment do not object so much to it when it works their way."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1948 December 9, “Shoe on the Other Foot”, in Milwaukee Journal, retrieved 2015-08-14, page 18",
          "text": "As usual, it makes a difference which foot the shoe is on. All too often the farmer has been willing to vote for legislation as long as he was exempted […] But he doesn't like it when it is proposed that laws he supports when they apply to others also be applied to him.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Raymond Barber, Don't Look Now, But Your Attitude is Showing, page 105",
          "text": "The little girl said to her mother, \"Mother, why is it when you are cross, you say it's your nerves; and when I'm nervous, you say I'm cross?\" It depends on which foot the shoe is on, doesn't it?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 July 28, Jeff Stein, “Nonprofits Seek to Keep Communities Intact Amid Rampant Gentrification”, in New York Nonprofit Media, retrieved 2015-08-14",
          "text": "Some of those involved with the Broadway Triangle proposal, however, dispute the coalition’s claims that the project unfairly excludes minority residents.\n“It all depends on which foot the shoe is on,” said Rabbi David Niederman […] “Other groups are trying to dilute the chances of Jewish families getting access to affordable apartments by trying to include another large community board in the development.”",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "Which point of view is considered or whose interests are used as a basis."
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        "(idiomatic) Which point of view is considered or whose interests are used as a basis."
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      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "what foot the shoe is on"
    },
    {
      "word": "whose foot the shoe is on"
    }
  ],
  "word": "which foot the shoe is on"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.