in someone's shoes

Idioms and Phrases

Also, in someone else's shoes ; in someone's place or stead . Acting for another person or experiencing something as another person might; in another's position or situation. For example, If you were in my shoes, would you ask the new secretary for a date? or In your shoes I wouldn't accept the offer , or Can you go to the theater in my place? or He was speaking in her stead . The idioms alluding to shoes , with their image of stepping into someone's shoes, date from about 1700 and are generally used in a conditional clause beginning with if. Stead , dating from the 1300s, and place , from the 1500s, are used more loosely. Also see fill someone's shoes ; put someone in his or her place ; take someone's place .