to put oneself in someone's shoes
- idiom
- Put yourself in my shoes.
- put yourself in other people's shoes
- ability to put yourself in other people's shoes
- put yourself in the other lawyer's shoes and think
Examples
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GM probably could have turned it around if they put themselves in their customers' shoes and took a serious look at how their customers really felt.
Blog text (14) -
Well, put yourself in his shoes, John.
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But you gotta put yourself in my shoes, okay?
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Look, Dad, please please just put yourself in my shoes.
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Can you put yourself in my shoes?
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- Try putting yourself in my shoes.
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If you put yourself in someone else's shoes, would you want to be made fun of?
Blog text (6) -
Ramberg also suggests you put yourself in your employees' shoes as well.
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TIP! Try putting yourself in your child's shoes when he or she presents a problem they are having to you.
Blog text (32) -
Before you judge anyone, try to put yourself in their shoes and understand their situation.
Synonyms
To understand and share another person's feelings by imagining what they feel
To imagine being in another person's situation to understand how they feel
To understand how someone thinks and feels about a situation
To imagine how someone else feels and sees things
Imagine yourself in another person's situation to understand how they feel
Imagine being in the other person's place to understand them better
Imagine being the other person to understand their feelings and situation
Antonyms
How Understanding
- US
Surface Forms
Morphology
put + oneself + in + someone's + shoes
The meaning 'to imagine being in another person's situation' follows directly from composing 'put' (place), 'oneself' (yourself), 'in' (into) and 'someone's shoes' (metaphor for their position); the phrase transparently maps to placing yourself in another's position. The shoes-for-position metaphor is common and has close equivalents in many languages, so an average B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Put oneself in someone's shoes paints the picture of actually stepping into another person's shoes to feel how they walk and what problems they face, so it means 'to imagine' another person's feelings or situation.