a weakness or hidden flaw in the character of a greatly admired or respected person:
He was disillusioned to find that even Lincoln had feet of clay.
2.
any unexpected or critical fault.
Origin
1855-60
Examples from the web for feet of clay
Half the apparent geniuses turn out to have feet of clay.
The disappointment of finding out that one of your heroes has feet of clay.
Without a strong capacity for innovation and creativity, even a giant has feet of clay.
If you pardon my language, it's good to know our saint has feet of clay.
And even biographers specialise in exposing feet of clay.
The population dynamics of human beings with feet of clay are obvious and fully comprehensible.
Then all the heroes died, and those that didn't came down with terminal feet of clay.
So for all its artistic merit, as a human drama the film retains feet of clay.
Savannah keeps falling for dreamboats with feet of clay.
But the search for salvation is always riddled with ironies, and the gurus keep turning out to have feet of clay.
feet of clay in Culture
feet of clay definition
People are said to have “feet of clay” if they are revealed to have a weakness or flaw that most people were unaware of: “When the coach was arrested for drunken driving, the students realized that their hero had feet of clay.”
Idioms and Phrases with feet of clay
feet of clay
A failing or weakness in a person's character, as in The media are always looking for a popular idol's feet of clay. This expression comes from the Bible (Daniel 2:31–33), where the prophet interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a statue with a head of gold and feet of iron clay. [ c. 1600 ]