heel1
/hiːl
/- This pointing pulls the heel and ankle bones forward putting a great deal of rubbing on the skin on top of the ankle bones and over the tendon in front of the ankle.
- The commonest ankle sprain is when the heel or foot turn inwards in relation to the lower leg, overstretching the ligaments on the outside of the ankle.
- These animals also have spurred heels, but these appear to be a feature of both sexes in the young, the females losing them as they mature.
- If you can (and your horse will stand for you), try drying off their heels with a hair dryer on a cool setting after the once weekly wash.
- They are a plain looking, solid sort of shoe with a chunky heel, quite rigid support and come in an infinite range of colours and limited editions.
- Mine are presently a half-inch above the heel of my shoes.
- A shoe with a distinct heel will be much, much easier to walk in.
Synonyms
- Changing out of his painting clothes after a somewhat disappointing day in his studio, he noticed the worn spot on the heel of his sock.
- Your sock's heel should fit snugly around your heel.
- She wore a short black dress, her black walking heels, and a tight red cardigan with just the middle button done up over the dress.
- People don't seem to understand that modeling is not just getting on the catwalk and walking in heels.
- I closed my eyes a moment, rubbing the center of my forehead - just between my eyebrows - with the heel of my palm.
- Claire sniffles, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her palm.
- He rubbed his eye with the heel of his palm and smiled widely.
- The iron's center of gravity is toward the heel and higher than in the company's more forgiving irons.
- On the first tee, he hit a shot off the heel and almost hit somebody's head in the gallery.
- She plopped down her bowl of stew and heel of crusty bread, holding the mug of cider in her hand as she sat.
- He had just finished soaking up the last of his roast beef with a heel of bread.
Synonyms
- Chief Executives have gone from heroes in gray pinstriped suits to heels in orange jumpsuits.
- In fact, if you are dining there he will lend you a pair of flip-flops to get back to your chair while he heels your soles.
- Once your puppy is heeling properly, it's time to teach him to sit.
- Now I let it off the chain and it follows me everywhere, obediently heeling.
- Three weeks ago, Mary appeared on the TV programme, teaching a dog how to heel to a TV theme tune.
- They swiftly heeled a scrum on the champions' line, and Thomson cleverly waited while he assessed his options.
- Within ten minutes, the ball is heeled by the Scottish forwards and sent out to the wing.
- Such preliminary use of a foot would be a new skill to today's players, though much of the time it would merely amount to heeling the ball with the feet in a concerted rucking drive.
- I was getting a little scared I wouldn't get her back so I shouted ‘HEEL!’
Phrases
at (or to) heel
at (or on) the heels of
bring someone to heel
cool (or kick) one's heels
in the heel of the hunt
kick up one's heels
set (or rock) someone back on their heels
take to one's heels
turn on one's heel
under the heel of
Derivatives
heeled
heelless
/ adjective ...- By the early 19th century women dancers began to wear the new thin, heelless, satin ballet slipper, tied with ribbons around the ankle and stiffened at the toe by rows of darning.
- Under the overcoat, she wore a blue skirt and a white blouse and thick stockings and heelless black shoes.
- For instance, the Prince in Swan Lake wears heelless character boots.
Origin
Old English hēla, hǣla, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hiel, also to hough.
hell from Old English:
Hell descends from an ancient Indo-European root with the sense ‘to cover, hide’ which also gave rise to Latin celare (root of conceal (Middle English) and occult) and to English hole (see hold), helmet (Late Middle English), and heel ‘to set a plant in the ground and cover its roots’. This was originally unconnected with the Old English word for the part of the foot, but rather came from helian ‘cover’.
The infernal regions are regarded as a place of torment or punishment, and many curses and exclamations, such as a hell of a— or one hell of a—, depend on this. These expressions used to be shocking, and until the early 20th century were usually printed as h—l or h—. Alterations such as heck (late 19th century) served the same softening purpose in speech as well as in writing. The saying hell hath no fury like a woman scorned is a near quotation from a 1697 play by William Congreve: ‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned.’ The dramatist Colley Cibber had used very similar words just a year earlier, and the idea was commonplace in the Renaissance. It can be traced back to the Greek dramatist Euripides of the 5th century bc. Strictly the ‘fury’ is one of the Furies of Greek mythology, frightening goddesses who avenged wrong and punished crime, but most people now use and interpret it in the sense ‘wild or violent anger’. The proverb the road to hell is paved with good intentions dates from the late 16th century, but earlier forms existed which omitted the first three words. Grumpy and misanthropic people everywhere will agree with the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre who wrote in 1944: ‘Hell is other people.’
Rhymes
heel2
/hiːl/- As the wind increased, the yacht heeled over to a precarious angle and its bow was being continually submerged by the oncoming swell.
- The worst thing, we agreed, was putting on the oilskins in such conditions, whether on a fishing boat or a yacht heeled well over and battering her way into a difficult sea.
- Even as he spoke, the ship heeled over in the rising wind, and he moaned.
Synonyms
- Placed too high up on a sailboat's mast, the radar might miss seeing a nearby target on the windward side when a boat is heeled over.
- She knew what the best angle of heel was for a swift passage.
Origin
Late 16th century: from obsolete heeld, hield 'incline', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hellen.
heel3
/hiːl/- Of course if the weather is very cold when your plants arrive, this is the only option for them, since if it's too cold for planting then it's also too cold to heel plants in.
- They're bare roots and so far I've left them packed in their plastic bags and in the garage, but as I don't have their permanent containers yet I will need to heel them in today.
- Find a way to heel it in in such a way that the amount of sun and wind the root ball receives is minimal.
Origin
Old English helian 'cover, hide', of Germanic origin, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin celare 'hide'.