old shoe

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a person or thing that is comfortably familiar and unpretentious.

   Uncle Will is a lovable old shoe.

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old shoe Idioms  

1. see comfortable as an old shoe.

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Other Word Forms

• old-shoe adjective

Example Sentences

My knife also became something of a conversation piece—friends I cooked for wanted to try it, drawing it from its homemade cover, crafted from old shoe boxes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 23, 2025

It was a grind that gave way to a routine as comfortable as an old shoe.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 25, 2025

“I opened the bag and inside the bag was an old shoe box and inside of the shoe box, I saw the blue-and-white gingham dress,” Mr. Ripa recalled on Friday.

From New York Times • Apr. 23, 2022

I searched in my old shoe boxes of cards and almost gave up.

From Washington Post • Oct. 3, 2020

And I believe that Mr. Sloan would have eaten an old shoe if she’d served it to him hot.

From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk