TO WAIT FOR DEAD MEN’S SHOES, verb. phr. (common).—To look forward to an inheritance.

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  fl. 1650.  R. FLETCHER, Poems, 256.

        And tis a general shrift that most men use,
But yet tis tedious WAITING DEAD MENS SHOES.

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  1758.  A. MURPHY, The Upholsterer, i. I grant ye, ma’am, you have very good pretensions; but then it’s WAITING FOR DEAD MEN’S SHOES.

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  1764.  WILKES [FITZGERALD’S Life (1888), i. 244]. As they have no other relation but Miss Wilkes, I therefore suppose they will leave everything to her, independent of me. Yet this is, after all, WAITING FOR DEAD MEN’S SHOES.

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  1876.  C. H. WALL, trans. Molière, ii. 218. Death is not always ready to indulge the heir’s wishes and prayers, and we may starve while WAITING FOR DEAD MEN’S SHOES.

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  1902.  Pall Mall Gazette, 26 July, 2. 3. WAITING FOR DEAD MEN’S SHOES is a tedious business, especially when the shoes in question are a pair of Turkish slippers.

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  TO WAIT ON ONE, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To seek a chance of retaliation, revenge, or spite; to try and get one’s own back.

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