pair of shoes

English

Etymology

Perhaps from French chose (“thing, matter”).

Noun

pair of shoes (plural pairs of shoes)

1. (idiomatic, dated) A case or situation that is different from another.

   Synonyms: kettle of fish, ball game

   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter I, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 11:

     “Shall colonists have their horses (and blood ’uns, if you please, good Lord!) and not my London gentleman? No, no. We’ll show ’em another pair of shoes than that, Pip; won’t us?”

   • 1876, Robert Edward Francillon, “A Dog and His Shadow, Book II, Chapter XIX”, in The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume 16, page 624:

     “He’s all there, if that’ll ease their mind. But where he is—that’s another pair of shoes.”

   • 1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 121:

     Eckhardt was a very different pair of shoes from Gaál.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pair,‎ shoes.