put the same shoe on every foot

phrase

To attempt to apply a single solution to different problems.

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Meanings

phrase
  1. idiomaticTo attempt to apply a single solution to different problems.

    You would laugh at a cobbler who should attempt to put the same shoe on every foot.

    2007, Robert Mayhew, Essays on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, →ISBN, page 122
    2 more examples

    The king of England, who is your holiness's son, is not so like the rest of the world. We cannot put the same shoe on every foot.

    1883, Victor Lafayette Conrad, The Luther Memorial, page 772

    Watch anything in a cage, that is run on a regulatory system of control, sensory deprivation and or sensory abuse, really really poor nutrition, no regard for individual dignity, trying to put the same shoe on every foot,etc.

    2014 November 3, Francis Greenburger, “Incarcerating the Mentally Ill Makes Us All Less Safe”, in VICE News

Origin

From the proverb, you cannot put the same shoe on every foot.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

put the same shoe on every foot. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put%20the%20same%20shoe%20on%20every%20foot

MLA

“put the same shoe on every foot.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put%20the%20same%20shoe%20on%20every%20foot. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “put the same shoe on every foot,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put%20the%20same%20shoe%20on%20every%20foot.

Source: put the same shoe on every foot on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.