Shoes to fill meaning in English

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Definition

Those are some big shoes to fill: The person that takes the job will have an enormous job to compete; Your successor has a big task doing the job as well idiom

a shoe: footwear, a boot, a sneaker, a covering for the foot noun

to fill: to cram, to squeeze, to inflate, to seal, to plug, to pack, to crowd verb

Examples

"You're the CFO, huh? Those are some big shoes to fill."

Exercise 1

Philip tells Icarus "Those are some big shoes to fill".
This idiom is common in English.

Based on the context of the dialogue, what does Philip mean when he says this?

Icarus will have to work hard to do all the duties of a CFO

The previous CFO had extremely large feet

Philip was very attached to the previous CFO, and doesn't like Icarus

Icarus must have big shoes if he wants to become the new CFO

I don't know

Philip tells Icarus "Those are some big shoes to fill".
This idiom is common in English.

Based on the context of the dialogue, what does Philip mean when he says this?

Icarus will have to work hard to do all the duties of a CFO

The idiom "those are big shoes to fill" expresses that the responsibilities of a position are very big. We almost always use this expression when someone has left a job, and someone else must now assume their responsibilities. For example: "Bruno has just resigned from his position as CEO. Whoever replaces him will have some big shoes to fill".

The previous CFO had extremely large feet

This idiom does not express that the previous CFO had large feet.

Philip was very attached to the previous CFO, and doesn't like Icarus

This idiom does not express that Philip was "attached" to the previous CFO, nor that Philip doesn't like Icarus.

Icarus must have big shoes if he wants to become the new CFO

This idiom does not express that Icarus "must have big shoes", but rather that there is a lot of work to be done as the CFO of the company.

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