English

Phrase

as ever trod shoe-leather

1. (archaic, idiomatic) As ever existed or lived.
   • 1767, ‘Andrew Barton’ (pseudonym; Thomas Forrest or Francis Hopkinson?), The Disappointment, or, The Force of Credulity: A New American Comic-opera, of Two Acts, New York [i.e., Philadelphia, Penn.]: Printed [by John Dunlap?], OCLC 62811750; republished as The Disappointment, or, The Force of Credulity: A New American Comic-opera, in Three Acts, 2nd edition, Philadelphia, Penn.: Printed for and sold by Francis Shallus no. 40, Vine-Street, 1796, OCLC 62830237, page 34:

     As grate a rascal, as ever trod shoe-leather.

   • 1809, E[nos] Bronson [et al.], “On the Marriage Manufactory at Gretna Green”, Select Reviews, and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines, volume I, Philadelphia, Penn.: From the Lorenzo Press of E. Bronson [and sold by various booksellers], OCLC 504243166, page 118:

     As handsome a gentleman, to be sure, as ever trod shoe leather! I wonder that old folks can be so very, very blind!

   • 1825, John Neal, Brother Jonathan: Or, The New Englanders: In Three Volumes, volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood; T[homas] Cadell, OCLC 3593743, page 446:

     "He is a brave Indian, sir." – "Oh – is that all?" – "As brave a man, as ever trod shoe leather." – "Hum!" – "Yes." – "But Indians – do they tread shoe leather?" – "He's very brave, I mean – very." – "Why not say so, then?" – "I do."

   • 1830, Theodore Edward Hook, Maxwell, volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, OCLC 4329310, pages 54–55:

     […] [I]t's his temper as has saved his life; he's the best-temperdest cretur as ever trod shoe leather.

   • 1855 October 6, anonymous [Elizabeth Gaskell], “Half a Life-time Ago”, in Charles Dickens, editor, Household Words: A Weekly Journal, volume XII, number 289, London: [Household Words] Office (printed by Bradbury and Evans), OCLC 321293193, page 236:

     I've ne'er heard his name named since I saw him go out of the yard as stout a man as ever trod shoe-leather.

   • c. 1855, Lyman Beecher, “The Revival”, in Charles Beecher, editor, Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D., volume II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, published 1865, OCLC 1936567, page 72:

     It was as finely organized a Church as ever trod shoe-leather.

   • 1865 September 23, “Mrs. Brown and the Emperor of the French”, in Fun, London: Published (for the proprietors) by Thomas Baker, OCLC 752198897, page 17:

     I'm sure I never shall forget the turn young SIMMONS gave me when he came in with that paper as he'd been and copied out of a winder thro' being in a west-end house, tho' livin' at home with his mother, as steady a woman as ever trod shoe-leather, […]