Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

white-shoe en · ADJ

Pronunciation

Etymology

For the noun, from their traditional footwear. For the adjective, from the preponderance of Ivy League graduates hired by such firms.

Meanings

  1. (US, slang) Effeminate or immature.
  2. (US, slang) Establishment; pertaining to mainstream US social power-structures.
    • Dulles had been a junior diplomat after World War I and a white-shoe Wall Street lawyer in the Depression. 2007, Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, published 2008, page 26:
    • In “Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change,” Ellen K. Pao traces a journey of disillusionment that culminated in the lawsuit she brought against her employer, the white-shoe venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, for gender discrimination. 2017 September 19, Jennifer Szalai, “The Education of Ellen Pao”, in New York Times:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more white-shoe Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most white-shoe Degree=Sup lexicographic

Deriveds

white-shoe firm

white-shoe en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Etymology

For the noun, from their traditional footwear. For the adjective, from the preponderance of Ivy League graduates hired by such firms.

Meanings

  1. (US, slang) A stereotypical male Ivy League college student.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
white-shoes Number=Plur lexicographic