In politics is like with a thousand legger, who lives above you: every day another shoe drops ... "
John McCain
***
wait for the other shoe to drop
English
Etymology
A common experience of tenement living in apartment-style housing in New York City, and other large cities, during the manufacturing boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Apartments were built, similar in design, with the bedrooms located directly above and underneath one another. Thus, it was normal to hear a neighbor removing their shoes in the apartment above. As one shoe made a sound hitting the floor, the expectation for the other shoe to make a similar disturbance was created.
Verb
wait for the other shoe to drop
1.(idiomatic) To defer action or decision until another matter is finished or resolved.
2.(idiomatic) To await a seemingly inevitable event, especially one that is not desirable. ;
Translations
defer action pending another resolution
[show ]to await an undesirable inevitability
References[edit]
gwait for the other shoe to droph in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ISBN 978-0-395-82517-4.
Categories: English lemmas
English verbs
English idioms
English predicates