Idiom
get one's shine box
Meaning
Used as an insult.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Go get your shine box and stop bothering me.”
“You are acting like a child, so go get your shine box.”
“He told the rude stranger to go get his shine box instead of acting like he was in charge.”
“The arrogant intern tried to correct the manager, but the manager just told him to go get his shine box.”
“She felt insulted when her rival suggested she should go get her shine box after losing the debate.”
“The veteran gangster dismissed the young man with a sharp command to go get his shine box, effectively putting him in his place.”
Examples
simple
“Go get your shine box and stop bothering me.”
“You are acting like a child, so go get your shine box.”
contextual
“He told the rude stranger to go get his shine box instead of acting like he was in charge.”
“The arrogant intern tried to correct the manager, but the manager just told him to go get his shine box.”
“She felt insulted when her rival suggested she should go get her shine box after losing the debate.”
complex
“The veteran gangster dismissed the young man with a sharp command to go get his shine box, effectively putting him in his place.”
Origin
The phrase was popularised by the 1990 film Goodfellas, in which the character William "Billy Batts" Bentvena uses the expression to insult Tommy DeVito. It functions as a derisive allusion to Tommy's former employment as a shoeshiner, an occupation the speaker considers a permanent social stain despite Tommy's subsequent rise in the criminal hierarchy. The interaction suggests that professional mobility is an illusion and that one’s previous kit is never truly out of reach.
Key words
Related idioms
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