as ever trod shoe-leather

phrase
/əz ɛvə ˈtɹɒd ˈʃuːˌlɛðə/UK/æz ɛvɚ ˈtɹɑd ˈʃuːˌlɛðɚ/US

Etymology

Treading shoe-leather refers to walking, in the sense of “walking on this earth”.

Definitions

  1. As ever existed or lived.

    • As grate a rascal, as ever trod shoe-leather.
    • As handsome a gentleman, to be sure, as ever trod shoe leather! I wonder that old folks can be so very, very blind!
    • "He is a brave Indian, sir." – "Oh – is that all?" – "As brave a man, as ever trod shoe leather." – "Hum!" – "Yes." – "But Indians – do they tread shoe leather?" – "He's very brave, I mean – very." – "Why not say so, then?" – "I do."

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for as ever trod shoe-leather. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA