DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
(lit.) the boot hits the floor (idiom) / (fig.) a much-anticipated, impactful development has finally occurred (an allusion to a joke from the 1950s in which a young man would take off a boot and throw it onto the floor, waking the old man sleeping downstairs who could then not get back to sleep until he had heard the second boot hit the floor)Sources & editorial notes
Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.
Source record: cd-b30dd5925c38c1fb. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.
Original source entry:
靴子落地 靴子落地 [xue1 zi5 luo4 di4] /(lit.) the boot hits the floor (idiom)/(fig.) a much-anticipated, impactful development has finally occurred (an allusion to a joke from the 1950s in which a young man would take off a boot and throw it onto the floor, waking the old man sleeping downstairs who could then not get back to sleep until he had heard the second boot hit the floor)/Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.
Reference information
The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.
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Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.