shoe-leather

1. (countable, uncountable)Leather that is used to make shoes.

2. (uncountable)Leather from which shoes are made that is worn out through walking.

3. (broadly, countable, idiomatic, uncountable)The sweat of one's brow; effort; investigatory effort.

   They expended a lot of shoe-leather in hunting down every lead.

4. (countable, derogatory, figuratively, slang, uncountable)Tough meat, especially cheap meat.

   The school certainly wasn't breaking the bank by feeding us — when it wasn't gruel it was shoe-leather.

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