What is the origin of fill one's shoes (idiom)?

Posted by Smokey Stover on December 10, 2006

In Reply to: What is the origin of fill one's shoes (idiom)? posted by Angie on December 10, 2006

: What is the origin of fill one's shoes (idiom)?

✪ The problem with searching for this idiom is primarily the fact that one has a variable between the verb and the noun. Fill his shoes? Fill one's shoes? Fill your boots? If you search the Archive with "fill the boots" you will get about as much as with "fill the shoes (of)," since boots and shoes are used pretty interchangeably in this idiom.

I'm assuming that Angie doesn't mean something like "fill one's shoes with mud," but rather something like: "I'm sorry to see you leave; no one will be able to fill your shoes," or "No one will be able to fill Jim's boots," or "If she goes, who'll be able to fill her shoes?" In these instances, the message is: when you, he, she or Jim is gone, will his replacement be able to measure up to your, his, her or Jim's abilities? It can be used in the indicative, but this idiom is frequently used with the interrogative mood.
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• What is the origin of fill one's shoes (idiom)? Smokey Stover 10/December/06
  • Fill yer boots! Lewis 11/December/06