know shit from shinola
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.86 in modern English
37
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
3
Syllables
13
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- ""He don't know shit from Shinola. (laughter) you know that? Always wondered how the Shinola people felt about that (laughter) Hi, I'm the new man from Shinola. (laughter) Hi, how are ya? Nice to see ya? (laughter) How are ya? (laughter)""
- ""I'd like to comment on your May editorial, "Who's In Charge Here?" You may be a fair journalist, but you don't know shit from Shinola when it comes to karate.""
- ""Laura looked at him coolly, levelly. 'Frank,' she said softly, 'the information simply isn't there. Therefore the control can't be there either. So don't try to con me. You don't know shit from Shinola!'""
- ""See what I mean Shiela? You've got the logical form, the semantics, and all that, but you don't know shit from Shinola, and with your stupid heuristic learner you can't learn it unless somebody with authority tells you.""
- ""Nowadays they've got all those captains and majors and lieutenants strutting around like it's May Day in Moscow, and they don't know shit from Shinola about how to run a ladies' jail.""
Etymology
A colloquialism which dates back to the early 1940s in the United States, sometimes ended with "that's why your shoes don't shine". Shinola was a popular brand of shoe polish.
Usage
- American usage