[Idiom] 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

 

[lerish]

Dear Sanmayce,
I think somehow almost all the exemples you gave have the same idea of the meaning of the sentence stated. But even though I can't understand what does tha mean. (Taking the shine off...) Let's use the second exemple you gave: "take the shine off the apple". What is the meaning behind that? what does it want to say?
Thank you!

 

[5jj]

"take the shine off the apple". What is the meaning behind that? what does it want to say?

See post #2.

 

[Sanmayce]

Hi lerish, I like your persistence, it is a sign of your serious approach to English, sensitiveness to details is a very IMPORTANT thing, way to go.

As for

I think somehow almost all the exemples you gave have the same idea of the meaning of the sentence stated.

in my opinion(not a teacher) not so, in the following example:

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 meaning is to cast shadow over Paganini's performance, i.e. to shine more intensively than Paganini. Here the accent is on "to be better" not "to spoil" or to diminish.

Regards

 

[lerish]

Hi Sanmayce, Many thanks. You are good! The expression makes sense for me now.I think it led to the idea that nothing is allowed to shine around him, but himself. Not even a small shine that comes from his shoes. Thus, I guess the guy is arrogant.

Thank you again.

All the best.

 

[Tdol]

I don't think the person in the song is arrogant- you start off with shiny new shoes and over time they get worn and lose their shine, like people as they age and become experienced, but the person in the song doesn't let the knocks and disappointments of life stop him from trying to do what he believes in (sticking to his guns).

 

[lerish]

I don't know if arrogant is the right word for describing this expression in this song. But I think the song tries to show that he is too much confident. So confident that even his wife calls him crazy. So confident, that he is gambling with his life. This excess of confidence might be considered arrogance. When someone thinks that he is so much better than the others, he is probably arrogant.
I think this expression has a negative meaning. But I might be wrong. That's what I'm trying to find out. (which I thought I had). Anyway, I'm here to learn.
Thank you!
Regards

 

[5jj]

I think the song tries to show that he is too much confident. So confident that even his wife calls him crazy. So confident, that he is gambling with his life. This excess of confidence might be considered arrogance. When someone thinks that he is so much better than the others, he is probably arrogant.

The suggestions made in posts #2,5,10,13 and 15 don't support this idea.

The lyrics of the whole song are difficult to understand, for example:
And then she tell him that he's crazy / She's saying "hey baby / I'm your wife" / Yeah she tell him that he's crazy / For gambling with his life // But he climbs on his horse / You know he feel no remorse / he just kicks it alive / His motor is fine / He take it over the line / Until he's ready to die.

I don't think you are ever going to get a satisfactory explanation. I think JMurray and Tdol may have come close, but we'll never know for sure - unless the songwriter, Mark Knopfler writes in to tell us.

 

[lerish]

Fivejedjon, You are definitely right!!

 

[Tdol]

but we'll never know for sure - unless the songwriter, Mark Knopfler writes in to tell us.

And then he might not really know. ;-)

 

[Coolfootluke]

I am not a teacher.

The song is about a guy who dies (line in the news) when he crashes his motorcycle (horse) going too fast (over the line) while drunk (swallow it neat) and high on marijuana (burning the grass). I'm guessing it was written by a guy who was drunk and high on marijuana at the time he wrote it too fast. Shelley it ain't. "Shoes" rhymes with "news", and that's enough for a song lyric.