Word.ws English Dictionary

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot proverb: a method or technique that works in one situation does not necessarily work in all situations.

Proverb

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

  1. A method or technique that works in one situation does not necessarily work in all situations.
    • Application of the adage that "you cannot put the same shoe on every foot" produces no hardship whatsoever, since the terms of the trust may be made exactly to fit the business to be undertaken.1921, John Harold Sears, Trust Estates as Business Companies, →ISBN, page 416
    • What I tell these misinformed inmates is that you cannot put the same shoe on every foot.2012, Jayson Williams, Humbled Letters from Prison, →ISBN, page 230

Origin of you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

Coined by Publilius Syrus.

Questions about you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

What does you cannot put the same shoe on every foot mean?
You cannot put the same shoe on every foot means a method or technique that works in one situation does not necessarily work in all situations.
What part of speech is you cannot put the same shoe on every foot?
You cannot put the same shoe on every foot is a proverb.

Words near you cannot put the same shoe on every foot in the dictionary

  1. you can't win them all
  2. you cannot break a stick in a bundle
  3. you cannot break a twig in a bundle
  4. you cannot break sticks in a bundle
  5. you cannot please everyone
  6. you cannot put the same shoe on every foot
  7. you catch more flies with honey than vinegar
  8. you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
  9. you could cut the air with a knife
  10. you could cut the atmosphere with a knife
  11. you could have fooled me

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: you cannot put the same shoe on every foot (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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