DictionaryAI

heel

SayHEEL/hil/UK/hiːl/

Pluralheels

Verbheels, heeling, heeled

31 meanings of heel

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  1. 1
    back of footnouncountable
    The rear end of the foot, just below and behind the ankle.

    The runner bruised her heel on the rocky trail.

    He felt a blister forming on his heel after the long walk.

    Note

    The anatomical sense from which most other noun senses grow. Built around the calcaneus, the heel takes the body's weight at every step. John Denham's poem Cooper's Hill gives a fleeing stag "winged heels," where the part stands for speed in flight.

  2. 2
    women's dress shoenouncountable
    A shoe with a tall, raised heel, especially a woman's dress shoe.

    She slipped a heel off under the table during the long dinner.

    Tall heels can make your feet ache after only a few hours.

    UsageCommon phrases: wear heels, walk in heels, kick off your heels; a single heel usually means one shoe of a pair.

    Oppositeflat

  3. 3
    raised shoe partnouncountable
    The part of a shoe's sole that sits beneath and supports the back of the foot.

    The heel of his dress shoe cracked after years of use.

    A worn heel can throw off your balance when you walk.

  4. 4
    wrestling villainnounslangcountable
    In professional wrestling, a performer who plays the villain, with a ring persona built on bragging, bullying, and rule-breaking.

    Every great heel knows exactly how to make the audience hate him.

    The promoter turned their top star into a heel to spark fresh rivalries.

    UsageCommon phrases: play the heel, and turn heel for a wrestler who becomes the villain.

    Similarvillain, baddie

    Oppositeface, babyface

    Note

    Wrestling borrowed the insult from the contemptible person and made it a role. A heel plays the villain on purpose, cultivating arrogance and underhanded tactics to draw the crowd's hostility. The opposing hero is the babyface, or simply face. Bruce Lincoln's Discourse and the Construction of Society (1989) reports that heels triumph considerably more often than babyfaces do.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The wrestling sense developed from the insult meaning a contemptible person. en.wiktionary.org
    • Heels deliberately portray villains, using arrogance and cheating to provoke audience hostility. en.wikipedia.org
    • The opposing heroic wrestler is called a babyface or face. en.wikipedia.org
    • Bruce Lincoln's book was first published in 1989; 1992 is a reprint date. openlibrary.org
    • Lincoln's book reports that heels triumph considerably more often than babyfaces. en.wiktionary.org
  5. 5
    verbtransitive or intransitive
    Of a dog, to walk or follow closely at a person's heels, especially on command; also, to make a dog do this.

    A good sheepdog will heel the instant its handler whistles.

    The trainer heeled the young spaniel past the other dogs without a leash.

    UsageBest known as the command Heel!; a dog is trained to heel.

  6. 6
    back of socknouncountable
    The part of a sock or similar foot covering that fits over the back of the foot.

    The heel of the sock had worn thin after months of use.

    Knitting the heel of a sock takes a bit of practice.

  7. 7
    kick backwardverbtransitive
    To kick with the heel of the foot.

    The rugby player heeled the ball back out of the scrum.

    Defenders can heel the ball clear when they are under pressure.

    UsageYou can add a direction: heel the ball back or heel a horse forward.

    Similarkick

    Note

    Riders use the verb as well as footballers. In she heeled her horse forward, the rider urges the animal on with a kick of her heels. In that use it takes the horse as its object, adds a direction word such as forward, and describes a signal rather than a blow.

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Origins

Meanings 1–10, 13–22

From Middle English hele, from Old English hēla, going back through Proto-West Germanic to Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz, a diminutive of *hanhaz ("heel, hock"). It is related to Dutch hiel, German Low German Hiel, Danish and Norwegian hæl, and Swedish häl.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

Meanings 11–12

This is probably a form worked out from hielded, the past tense of hield. That verb goes back to Middle English helden and Old English hyldan or hieldan ("to incline"), which has a cognate in Old Norse hella ("to pour out").