shoeshine

[shoo-shahyn]

noun

an act or instance of cleaning and polishing a pair of shoes.

the surface of a polished shoe or shoes.

Origin of shoeshine

shoe + shine¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for shoe-shine

Historical Examples of shoe-shine

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.
Just Around the Corner
Fannie Hurst
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

the act or an instance of polishing a pair of shoes

the appearance or shiny surface of polished shoes

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).