shoeblack
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of shoeblack
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.
The partners, thus encouraged, looked rather amused, and Mr Barnacle said, “You’re the little shoeblack, are you?”
From My Friend Smith A Story of School and City Life by Reed, Talbot Baines
The last shoeblack that I remember in London sat under the covered entrance of Red Lion-court, Fleet-street within the last six years.
From A History of the Cries of London Ancient and Modern by Hindley, Charles
But how rarely nowadays do we see this peripatetic shoeblack!
From The Perfect Gentleman by Bergengren, Ralph
He had to live like a gentleman upon this, and to give four guineas a year to the laundress, four to his barber, and two to his shoeblack.
From The English Utilitarians, Volume I. by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
Though the young prince may be superior in his gifts to the young shoeblack, and would best show his princeliness by cultivating the shoeblack, still the shoeblack should wait to be cultivated.
From Marion Fay by Trollope, Anthony
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
