have the black ox tread on one's foot

English

Verb

have the black ox tread on one's foot (third-person singular simple present has the black ox tread on one's foot, present participle having the black ox tread on one's foot, simple past and past participle had the black ox tread on one's foot)

1. (obsolete) To have trouble come upon one; to experience sorrow or misfortune.

References

• 1949, John Dover Wilson (compiler), Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes