walk a mile in someone's shoes

English

Etymology

From walk + a + mile + in + [possessive pronoun] + shoes. Originally, and still chiefly, found in admonitions not to judge a person until one has walked a mile in that person's shoes.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

walk a mile in someone's shoes (third-person singular simple present walks a mile in someone's shoes, present participle walking a mile in someone's shoes, simple past and past participle walked a mile in someone's shoes)

1. (idiomatic) To experience what someone has experienced.
   • 1994, Colin Escott et al., Hank Williams: The Biography‎^[1], Little, Brown and Company, published 1995, →ISBN, page 225:

     It's likely that he didn't begrudge what he had paid Marshall though, because he thought he had finally found a medical person who had walked a mile in his shoes.

Related terms

• the shoe is on the other foot
• which foot the shoe is on