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shoe leather

British  

noun

  1. leather used to make shoes

  2. to avoid wearing out shoes, as by taking a bus rather than walking

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Despite the kind of complacency that some people might feel, we still got work to do. We’ve got to keep burning that shoe leather until we get everybody out of jails and prisons.”

From Seattle Times • Apr. 20, 2024

After weeks of calls, emails and shoe leather, the supercomputer is becoming a legend too.

From Salon • Oct. 7, 2023

But the research wasn’t all libraries and journalistic shoe leather.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2022

That data was the starting point for some good old-fashioned shoe leather reporting by The Associated Press, which traced down the companies responsible using public records.

From The Verge • Aug. 3, 2022

It smelled of stale air and shoe leather and my grandfather’s slightly sour cologne.

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

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