Dictionary

shoe-leather en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃuːˌlɛðɚ/ (General-American)
• /ˈʃuːˌlɛðə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From shoe + leather.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, not-comparable) Basic, old-fashioned or traditional; specifically (journalism) shoe-leather journalism or shoe-leather reporting: journalism involving walking from place to place observing things and speaking to people, rather than sitting indoors at a desk.
   • Since then, China's two major Twitter-like microblogs have posted an astounding 26 million messages on the tragedy, a potent amalgam of contempt for railway authorities, suspicion of official explanations and shoe-leather journalism by citizens and professionals alike. 2011 July 28, Michael Wines, Sharon LaFraniere, “In baring facts of train crash, blogs erode China censorship [print version: In China, tweets shake the hold of state media: Microbloggers’ reaction to train crash shows new influence on government, International Herald Tribune, 29 July 2011]”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 28 Dec 2014:
   • When we set out to produce the site full time, everything we did went on the site, but the reporting for the site hasn't changed. I don't think it ever will. It's basic shoe leather reporting, hunting down sources and documents and confirming authenticity. 2008 April 23, Mark Glaser, “Public Documents + Shoe Leather Reporting = The Smoking Gun's Staying Power”, in Mediashift, Public Broadcasting Service, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2012:
   • The book, wrought from old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting of a type that's disappearing faster than nonfranchised lunch counters on Main Street, isn't chiefly a tale of drugs and crime, of dysfunction and despair, but a recession-era tragedy scaled for an "Our Town," Thornton Wilder stage and seemingly based on a script by William S. Burroughs. 2009 July 5, Walter Kirn, “Wasted Land”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 15 Nov 2014:
   • Yes, old school, shoe-leather reporting uncovered the Watergate and Pentagon Papers scandals. But it was disturbingly ineffective during the McCarthy witch hunts and the US invasion of Iraq. 2009 September 23, Erica Noonan, “Reporting on the threat posed when reliable reporting fades away”, in Boston.com (The Boston Globe), archived from the original on 26 Oct 2012:

Forms

shoe-leather en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃuːˌlɛðɚ/ (General-American)
• /ˈʃuːˌlɛðə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From shoe + leather.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Leather that is used to make shoes.
   • Outside of patent leathers and specialties, I know of no other types of shoe leathers which are commanding replacement costs today. 1922, Boot and Shoe Recorder: The Magazine of Fashion Footwear, volume 81, Philadelphia, Pa.: King Publications (a subsidiary of Chilton Company), →OCLC, page 86:
   • British authors have long suspected and documented that vegetable-tanned leather was responsible for many of their unexplained shoe leather-positive patients. 2008, Robert L. Reitschel, Joseph F. Fowler, Alexander A. Fisher, Fisher's Contact Dermatitis, 6th edition, Hamilton, Ont.: B. C. Decker, →ISBN, page 359:
   • Shoe Leathers. Leather used in making shoes is of two kinds – bottom, or sole, leather and upper leather. 1952, F. P. Veitch, R. W. Frey, H. P. Holman, Leather Shoes: Selection and Care (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin; 1523), rev. edition, Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 1:
   • Naturally, this aristocrat of shoe leathers costs more than ordinary leather – and, for the past two years, it has been all but unobtainable in this country. 1942 October 12, “Is there a Bagpipe Player in the Audience? [Regal Shoes advertisement]”, in LIFE, volume 13, number 15, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., →OCLC, page 136:
   • Notable in feminine footgear of the first two decades was the increasing number of different shoe leathers consisting of box calf, white calf, colored kids, buck and antelope. 1948, R. Turner Wilcox, “Twentieth-century Footwear”, in The Mode in Footwear, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, OCLC 1356620; republished as The Mode in Footwear: A Historical Survey with 53 Plates, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2008, ISBN 978-0-486-46761-0, page 154
2. (uncountable) Leather from which shoes are made that is worn out through walking.
   • Save on shoe leather [letter title] […] Pounding the sidewalks can seriously wear you out. 2011 August 13, Peter Atkinson, “Save on shoe leather [letter]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Travel), archived from the original on 17 Sep 2011, page T13:
   • In old times, if a Coniston peasant had any business at Ulverstone, he walked to Ulverstone; spent nothing but shoe-leather on the road, drank at the streams, and if he spent a couple of batz when he got to Ulverstone, "it was the end of the world." But now, he would never think of doing such a thing! He first walks three miles in a contrary direction, to a railroad station, and then travels by railroad twenty-four miles to Ulverstone, paying two shillings fare. 1874 June 6, John Ruskin, “Letter XLIV”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume IV, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, pages 166–167:
   • Many sleuths, both professional and amateur, have devoted years to unravelling the circumstances of the heist, but one man who has worn out more shoe leather than most in pursuit of this mystery is Stephen Kurkjian, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter now retired after 40 years at The Boston Globe. 2015 March 28, Jake Kerridge, “Solved! The greatest art theft in history”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), archived from the original on 30 Aug 2015, page R12:
3. (broadly, countable, idiomatic, uncountable) The sweat of one's brow; effort; investigatory effort.
   • America desperately needed a Jimmy Carter in 1976 […] And so for him to come out of almost from nowhere to earn the nomination by sheer shoe leather in Iowa and New Hampshire, and to be the person outside of the establishment and to say, I’m not from Washington, I will never lie to you, I’m a born again Christian – what I say is that, he really did bring a close to the Watergate period. 2024 December 29, Harry Bruinius, quoting Barbara A. Perry, “For Jimmy Carter, a life of service, defined by faith”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
   • Another way in which the laity expressed their yearning to break through the barrier separating them from the divine was to journey in pilgrimage to sacred places or shrines, so that they might offer their prayers in an especially powerful and effective setting. This was a devotion in which a layperson’s shoeleather was as good as that of any priest. 2003, Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History, Penguin, →ISBN, page 18:
   • They expended a lot of shoe-leather in hunting down every lead.
4. (countable, derogatory, figuratively, slang, uncountable) Tough meat, especially cheap meat.
   • The school certainly wasn't breaking the bank by feeding us — when it wasn't gruel it was shoe-leather.

Forms

Deriveds

shoe-leather reporting · shoe leather journalism · shoe-leather journalism · shoe leather reporting · as ever trod shoe-leather

Relateds

down at heel · shoemaker · shoe polish · pound a beat · patent leather