Meanings
plural white-shoes
- USslangA stereotypical male Ivy League college student.
comparative more white-shoe · superlative most white-shoe
- USslangEffeminate or immature.
- USslangEstablishment; pertaining to mainstream US social power-structures.
Dulles had been a junior diplomat after World War I and a white-shoe Wall Street lawyer in the Depression.
2007, Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, published 2008, page 261 more example
In “Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change,” Ellen K. Pao traces a journey of disillusionment that culminated in the lawsuit she brought against her employer, the white-shoe venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, for gender discrimination.
2017 September 19, Jennifer Szalai, “The Education of Ellen Pao”, in New York Times
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivedenoting a company or law firm owned and run by members of the WASP elite who are generally conservative
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
For the noun, from their traditional footwear. For the adjective, from the preponderance of Ivy League graduates hired by such firms.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
white-shoe. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white-shoe
“white-shoe.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white-shoe. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “white-shoe,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white-shoe.
Source: white-shoe on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.