I've come across the phrase "feet of clay" a lot lately. I can guess what this means but does anyone know?

I can guess what this means but does anyone know?

I have always understood this to be referring to a weakness or foible that leads to someone or something's ultimate downfall, and I assumed that it was derived from the image described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, as found in the Bible at Daniel chapter 2. That image had feet partly of clay and partly of iron, and those clay feet turned out to be its undoing, in a manner of speaking.

"Feet of clay" is generally used to refer to someone who has been held up as a paragon in some field, and who has subsequently failed to live up to his/her star billing.

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feet of clay

An underlying weakness or fault: “They discovered to their vast discomfiture that their idol had feet of clay, after placing him upon a pedestal” (James Joyce).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
Copyright © 1996, 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Hope this helps.

Oh, the Bible, now why didn't I think to look there? I had a great English teacher that would give us lists of common phrases that came from a certain origin, the Bible, Shakespere... I loved that class.

Thanks Max.

Clears it up a lot, thanks. Putting your response with Max's would make it a sort of a failure to live up to expectations thing, the feet of clay refering to the fault or imperfection.

I almost typoed Max's into Mazes.

This phrase is very common in Spanish but we say “a giant with feet of clay” which further implies a relationship with Nebuchadnezzar's dream.