clown shoe
- noun
- /klaʊn ʃu/
- "They're fucking clown shoes."
Always wear clown shoes because I would wear like, large pants or something.
- Always wear clown shoes because I would wear like, large pants or something.
Examples
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He tripped over his own big clown shoes while trying to juggle.
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On Moviepoopshoot.com... did you say Jay and Silent Bob are-- quote--"fucking clown shoes, and if they were real... "l'd kick the shit out of them for being so stupid"?
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Massive feet, you know, almost clown shoes size ones.
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Always wear clown shoes because I would wear like, large pants or something.
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You wear those big hippity-hoppity clown shoes.
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During the circus performance, the clown wore oversized clown shoes that made everyone laugh.
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At the party, the children loved playing with the giant clown shoes as part of the dress-up area.
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: combining 'clown' (an entertainer) with 'shoe' yields a type of shoe associated with clowns, so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a shoe used by clowns. The conventional detail that these are oversized for comedic effect is a culturally salient extension, but the basic referent is transparent and follows common noun-noun compounding patterns cross-linguistically.
Etymology
The noun clown shoe comes from circus clowns who wear very big shoes as part of a silly costume. The huge shoe makes their feet look awkward and can make them trip for a laugh, so 'clown shoe' means a very big shoe worn to make people laugh.