Meaning
The situation has been reversed, so that the person who previously held the advantage, or who handed out the treatment, is now on the receiving end. It frequently carries a note of relish or rough justice at the turnabout. Informal and conversational; it usually carries satisfaction, sometimes smug, at the reversal of fortunes. Regional use: British English.
Origin
An image of reversal built on footwear. Until the 1800s shoes were made straight, with either shoe fitting either foot; only when makers began shaping distinct left and right shoes did putting one on the wrong foot become distinctly uncomfortable, which, as Idioms Online relates, is what sharpened the metaphor. The expression has been in use since the mid-1800s and began as 'the boot is on the other leg', a form that persisted alongside the newer one before the foot version won out. The footwear then split by nation: British English keeps the boot, while American English mainly says 'the shoe is on the other foot', a division Collins records in a single joint entry covering both. No individual author or first citation is documented in the sources consulted, so the mid-1800s dating rests on the reference tradition rather than a located quotation.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- the boot is on the other leg
- the boot's on the other foot
- the shoe is on the other foot
- the shoe's on the other foot
Usage Examples
- Having lectured his staff about punctuality for years, he found the boot on the other foot when he arrived late to his own appraisal.
- Now that prices have fallen, the boot is on the other foot and first-time buyers can bargain hard.
- For once the shoe is on the other foot, and the champions are the ones chasing the game.