Take the shine off his shoes

[lerish]

What is the meaning for the expression: "Take the shine off his shoes"?

[SirGod]

*Not a teacher

Definition:

take the shine off something = if something that happens takes the shine off something pleasant, it spoils it or makes it less enjoyable

Example: Having my purse stolen took the shine off my visit to Dublin.

[Tdol]

What's the whole context? It's unclear what importance the shoes have and how the idiom defined above and the shoes come together.

[lerish]

Thank you very much for your post. But I think some how it has different meaning. It is something related to pride, arrogance. But I don't know what exactelly it is. But thanks anyway.

[5jj]

Thank you very much for your post. But I think some how it has different meaning. It is something related to pride, arrogance. But I don't know what exactelly it is. But thanks anyway.

It possibly means a similar thing to such expressions as:

That will knock the smile (or smug look) off his face.
That will bring him down a peg/notch or two.
That will put him in his place.

[lerish]

Dear Tdol, this is an expression I heard in England and the shoes come within it. There is one song by Dire Straits called "News" that uses this expression. I have a slight clue what it is about (someones pride), but I'm not sure about that and I would like to know the real meaning of it.

[5jj]

There is one song by Dire Straits called "News" that uses this expression. I have a slight clue what it is about (someones pride), but I'm not sure about that and I would like to know the real meaning of it.

It is not clear, to me at least, exactly what is meant here:

He sticks to his guns
He take the road as it comes
It take the shine off his shoes
He says it's a shame
You know it may be a game
Ah but I won't play to lose


Performed by Dire Straits, Written by Mark Knopfler.

[bhaisahab]

Dear Tdol, this is an expression I heard in England and the shoes come within it. There is one song by Dire Straits called "News" that uses this expression. I have a slight clue what it is about (someones pride), but I'm not sure about that and I would like to know the real meaning of it.

I've never heard the expression. I agree with fivejedjon that it could mean the same as his suggestions in post #5.

[Sanmayce]

I have a slight clue what it is about (someones pride), but I'm not sure about that and I would like to know the real meaning of it.

I don't have a clue either, but check these:

Popular Mechanics - Oct 2000 - Page 64:
Before every game, umpires rub up five dozen brand-new balls with a specific mud from the Delaware River to take the shine off.

Delivering the goods: education as cargo in Papua New Guinea - Page 100:
White men, too, might take the shine off the apple, jealous of their threatened monopoly;

Form and fable in American fiction - Page 55:
If I don't take the shine off the Sea Serpent, when I get back to Boston, then my name's not Sam Patch.

The Count of Monte Cristo: Part 1:
If he had only a comb and hair-grease, he'd take the shine off the gentlemen in white kids.

Behind the burnt cork mask: early blackface minstrelsy and ... - Page 10:
... and their performances were designed to "beat Ole Bull from de Norway" and " take the shine off Paganini.

The Pioneers - Page 132:
The fact that Jesse was missing didn't take the shine off her excitement.

Ideas and variations: essays, satire, criticism, 1973-76 - Page 107:
... Copernican theory by a thousand years and had the guts to take the shine off many an Indian sacred cow — the eclipse-causing Rahu among them —

Myth and identity in the epic of imperial Spain - Page 35:
For Ercilla, these are the "inhumane deeds that take the shine off the grand Spanish victory"

'Way down East: or, Portraitures of Yankee life - Page 344:
"Well," replied Patty, " if she'll only take the shine off Susan Jones when she goes to meetin', Sunday, I sha'nt care."

My comprehension is that one variant is related not to pride but rather to superiority over others, "to shadow them", "to be brighter than".

It seems that phrase is a popular one: 0.000000200+%
Google Ngram Viewer

I will dig for more when I return home... It is a interesting one.

In your case: However, it has a literal meaning, I think, that is in order to take this road it takes the good looking of your shoes i.e. their shining to be lost.

[JMurray]

He sticks to his guns
He take the road as it comes
It take the shine off his shoes
He says it's a shame
You know it may be a game
Ah but I won't play to lose

On the evidence of this sample, I think the song is about somebody who will not be discouraged by any difficulty that comes along in life – he takes the road as it comes even though it might take the shine off his shoes. But as a complete expression including the shoes, I too have never heard it in conversation.

not a teacher
not a songwriter either