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shoeshine

[shoo-shahyn]
noun
  1. an act or instance of cleaning and polishing a pair of shoes.
  2. the surface of a polished shoe or shoes.
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Origin of shoeshine

shoe + shine1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for shoe-shine

Historical Examples

  • She has dressed in a red sweater and plied her trade, for a day, as a shoe-shine boy.

    An Ocean Tramp

    William McFee

  • As a matter of fact, the social atmosphere of Nome now demands a white collar and a shoe-shine.

    The Land of Nome

    Lanier McKee

  • You with your pretty man suit and your hair and finger-nails polished like a shoe-shine.

  • Of course one has to clean one's own boots, unless one is near a "Shoe-shine Parlour" in some large town.

    Across the Prairie in a Motor Caravan

    Frances Halton Eva Hasell

British Dictionary definitions for shoe-shine

shoeshine

noun
  1. the act or an instance of polishing a pair of shoes
  2. the appearance or shiny surface of polished shoes
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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

Word Origin and History for shoe-shine

adj.

1911, from shoe (n.) + shine (n.). One who shines shoes for money was a shoeblacker (1755).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper