where the shoe pinches

where the shoe pinches

Where trouble or stress originates. I hate to say it, but I think this new project is where the shoe pinches—it's just taking too much of our time with too little payoff.
See also: pinch, shoe
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

where the shoe pinches

where your difficulty or trouble is.
See also: pinch, shoe
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • a baptism of fire
  • baptism
  • baptism by fire
  • baptism of fire
  • shoe up
  • jump the besom
  • aye
  • aye aye
  • ayeaye
  • pinch at (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
I am going to leave this to my worthy colleague, Charles Nyende who, by being there from Day One, knows where the shoe pinches. But looking at the meticulously maintained changing rooms, I couldn't help remembering the flooded Safaricom Stadium during the last rains.
'We are the traditional rulers of the people and we know where the shoe pinches. We are the closest to them.
Unfortunately it is the wearer who knows where the shoe pinches and Uhuru does not pay taxes; get power bills, lack bread or ugali.
We never know where the shoe pinches unless you wear it.
Mark Pearl, clearly understands where the shoe pinches, literally.
That is where the shoe pinches, and the cost will be prohibitive.
While bureaucracy can and should be a hive of intellectual activity on what is not being done, what needs to be done, or what needs to be done better, there are lots of busy public bees to tell them exactly where the shoe pinches.
There was also some wonderful wisdom in this first episode - not from Morse, Thursday or Strange but a doctor who, after being asked by Morse: "Was everything OK at home?" answered: "Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches."
The EU can now either change tactics or accept that it has been made public and that the Canadian authorities now know where the shoe pinches.
I owe it to myself and the people of India to show where the shoe pinches. Enough is enough."
there's golden a saying: "the wearer only knows where the shoe pinches"...u wont believe unless you see it yourself as there is only ONE main entrance to International City near the Dragon mart which is blocked mainly by the big sewerage trucks everyday waiting in long queues to unload...the trucks keep moving haphazardly out of sheer frustration due to long never ending wait......and the truck line starts from the main sewerage area and extends out in different roads which leads to the sewerage area creating dangerous blockages for the regular vehicles.
'Where the shoe pinches is how people get over the stigma of applying for council tax benefit,' he told AMs.
Instead of milquetoast, Maggio suggests "someone with cold feet." She would replace raise Cain with "lecture," "make mischief," or simply "carry on." Chuck Achilles' heel for "where the shoe pinches." "Made of money" is deemed a perfect substitute for rich as Croesus.
I became VC after spending 26 years within the system and I knew where the shoe pinches and I went for it.
That means working with our youth to show us where the shoe pinches. class="MsoNormalTwo, in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta's directive, Nairobi should urgently develop a County Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalisation.