heel

plural heels

1. anatomyThe rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg.

   He [the stag] calls to mind his strength and then his speed, / His winged heels and then his armed head.

   1709, John Denham, Coopers-Hill

2. The part of a shoe's sole which supports the foot's heel.
3. The rear part of a sock or similar covering for the foot.
4. The part of the palm of a hand closest to the wrist.

   He drove the heel of his hand into the man's nose.

5. plural normallyA high-heeled shoe.

   Oh mama, I'm just having fun On the stage in my heels It's where I belong down at the...

   2020 April 3, Chappell Roan, Dan Nigro, “Pink Pony Club”performed by Chappell Roan

   3 more examples

   She'd been wearing heels, and fell backward off her right heel and twisted or broke her ankle.

   2008, Kwame Shauku, Wonderful Williams and the Magnificent Seven, page 257

   Opting to improve her odds of making it up the stairs and into the privacy of her room, she kicked off her left heel, and then her right before leaning down to scoop them up.

   2011, Candace Irvine, A Dangerous Engagement

   Flat shoes. As she pushed off her left heel and pressed the sole of her foot to the cold floor she looked forward to them.

   2015, Alex Blackmore, Killing Eva

6. engineeringThe back, upper part of the stock.
7. entertainmentThe thickening of the neck of a stringed instrument where it attaches to the body.
8. The last or lowest part of anything.

   the heel of a mast

   2 more examples

   the heel of a vessel

   And then again the sportsmen would move at an undertaker's pace, when the fox had traversed and the hounds would be at a loss to know which was the hunt and which was the heel

   1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage

9. AustraliaIrelandScotlandUSA crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.

   the heel of the white loaf

   1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Boiled mutton was in one, and the heel of a damper in another.

   1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 32

   `Have ye seen,' said Uncle Jobson with basilisk severity, `what's become of the heel of to-day's loaf?'

   1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 42

10. USThe base of a bun sliced in half lengthwise.

    The bottom half, or the bun heel is placed in the carton, and the pickle slices spread evenly over the meat or cheese.

    1996, Ester Reiter, Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan Into the Fryer, page 100

    Synonyms: boot, butt

11. informalA contemptible, unscrupulous, inconsiderate, or thoughtless person.

    Douglas steams and stammers, a typical film noir heel, while Stone delivers her dialogue with the devilish gleam of a sly actor having a great time.

    2022 March 20, Jason Bailey, “‘Basic Instinct’ at 30: A Time Capsule That Can Still Offend”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

    2 more examples

    I grinned at him sneeringly. I was the heel to end all heels. Wait until the man is down, then kick him and kick him again. He's weak. He can't resist or kick back.

    1953, Raymond Chandler, chapter 29, in The Long Goodbye

    She should be glad to have him on her side. So why did Godshawk's memories, grumbling again in that substrate of her brain, keep reminding her of heels he'd known, and tricksters?

    2011, Philip Reeve, Scrivener's Moon, Scholastic, →ISBN, pages 361–362

12. broadlyslanggovernmentA headlining wrestler regarded as a "bad guy," whose ring persona embodies villainous or reprehensible traits and demonstrates characteristics of a braggart and a bully.

    Freedman began his analysis by noting two important facts about professional wrestling: First, that heels triumph considerably more often than do babyfaces[…]

    1992, Bruce Lincoln, Discourse and the Construction of Society, page 158

13. card gamesThe cards set aside for later use in a patience or solitaire game.
14. Anything resembling a human heel in shape; a protuberance; a knob.
15. architectureThe lower end of a timber in a frame, as a post or rafter.
16. USspecificallyThe obtuse angle of the lower end of a rafter set sloping.
17. obsoletearchitectureA cyma reversa.

    Talon: Heel moulding or ogee

    1891, Vignola, Practical Elementary Treatise on Architecture, page ii

    2 more examples

    Of these there are two Kinds; in the one, that Part which has the greatest Projecture is Concave, and is term'd Doucine, or an Upright Ogee; in the other, the Convex Part has the greatest Projecture; and this is call'd the Heel, or Inverted Ogee.

    1722, Claude Perrault, A Treatise of the Five Orders in Architecture, page vii

    There are two kinds—the upright ogee, in which the concave part projects most, and the heel or inverted ogee, which has the convexity most prominent. This last, with its fillet above, is always the upper moulding of a classical cornice.

    1846, George William Francis, The Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures

18. businessThe short side of an angled cut.
19. golfThe part of a club head's face nearest the shaft.
20. The lower end of the bit (cutting edge) of an axehead, as opposed to the toe (upper end).
21. The part of a carding machine's flat nearest the cylinder.
22. nauticalThe junction between the keel and the stempost of a vessel; an angular wooden join connecting the two.
23. engineeringMaterial stored in a smelting furnace between batches

present singular third person heels · participle present heeling · participle past heeled · past heeled

1. To follow at somebody's heels; to chase closely.

   She called to her dog to heel.

2. To cause to follow at somebody’s heels (transitive).
3. To add a heel to, or increase the size of the heel of (a shoe or boot).

   1 more example

   So I laid down my knittin', an' got up, an' stole ovir to the banes, an' nivir believe me iv I didn't see, sittin' right forenint me, in the very middle of thim, a bit of an ould man, not a quarther so big as a new-born child, wid a little cocked hat an his head, an' a dudeen in his mouth, smokin' away; an' a plain, ould-fashioned, dhrab-coloured coat, wid big brass buttons upon it, an his back, an' a pair o' massy silver buckles in his shoes, that a'most covered his feet they war so big, an' he workin' away as hard as ivir he could, heelin' a little pair o' pumps.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 378

4. To kick with the heel.

   she heeled her horse forward

5. transitiveTo perform by the use of the heels, as in dancing, running, etc.

   I cannot sing, Nor heel the high lavolt.

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], lines 85-86

6. transitiveTo arm with a gaff, as a cock for fighting.
7. transitivegolfTo hit (the ball) with the heel of the club.
8. transitiveAmerican footballTo make (a fair catch) standing with one foot forward, the heel on the ground and the toe up.
9. USintransitiveAt Yale University, to work as a heeler or student journalist.

present singular third person heels · participle present heeling · participle past heeled · past heeled

1. nauticalTo incline to one side; to tilt.First known use 16th c.

   The faster a ship sails, the better she will answer her helm; if she sail very slow, she will scarce steer at all. If she heel much, she won't answer the helm so well.

   1764, John Nourse, Navigation Or, the Art of Sailing Upon the Sea, page 65

plural heels

1. nauticalThe act of inclining or canting from a vertical position; a cant.First known use 17th c.

   [T]he boat, from a sudden gust of wind, taking a deep heel, I tumbled overboard and down I went […] .

   1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 14

   Synonyms: heeling

present singular third person heels · participle present heeling · participle past heeled · past heeled

1. alternativeespeciallyrareAlternative form of hele (“cover; conceal”).

   In the late fall the seedlings may be dug and heeled in very closely until all the leaves have dropped.

   1913, Indian School Journal, page 142

   5 more examples

   They should be dug up with a sharp mattock or grub hoe, the roots being broken as little as possible, and they should be heeled in a cool place and protected from the sun until ready to plant. When lifted for planting from the trench in which heeled the roots should be kept covered with a wet sack.

   1911, Biennial Report of the State Geologist, North Carolina Geological Survey Section, page 92

   Member: Did you water the trees when you set them out? Walter Vonnegut: No; I heeled the trees in as soon as they were received.

   1916, Transactions of the Indiana Horticultural Society, page 111

   If trees are received from the nursery in the fall, they should be carefully heeled in until the planting season opens in the spring.

   1937, Robert Wilson, Ernest John George, Planting and care of shelterbelts on the northern Great Plains, page 15

   Place seedlings in the trench. Small-stemmed seedlings may be heeled-in in bunches of 25, but large seedlings should be heeled-in loose.

   1976, Keith W. Dorman, The Genetics and Breeding of Southern Pines, page 66

   [I] of my own free will and accord, do hereby, here at and hereon, solemnly swear that I will always heel, conceal and never improperly reveal any of the secrets or mysteries of, or belonging to [the Masons].

   , Brian Kerr, Lodge St Lawrence 144 Ritual, page 34

1. A part of Maasgouw in the Netherlands