wait for the other shoe to drop wait for the next or final thing to happen. North American
*
Sure! Shoes come in pairs, so when the other shoe drops, you have a complete pair. Then it's time to walk.
But why does the shoe
drop? What's it doing way up there? My shoes are on the floor or hanging on my closet door. Do other people keep their shoes on such high shelves that they must knock them down with a pole?
Or maybe shoes used to grow on tall trees, and people had to shake the trees to get the shoes to drop. (Thus, the "shoe tree.")
Do shoes come from heaven?
*"shoe"
Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Edited by John Ayto, Judith Siefring and Jennifer Speake. Oxford University Press Inc.
Oxford Reference Online.
Oxford University Press. Harvard University Library. 17 October
2011