heeled

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of heel.

   The ship heeled hard to port as the storm intensified.

   The puppy finally heeled without being told twice.

   Note

   One spelling does both jobs because the verb is regular: the dog heeled (simple past), the dog had heeled (participle). The participle sometimes overlaps with the 'having a heel' adjective, since boots a cobbler has heeled have been given heels. The verb's sense of fitting a fighting cock with a gaff also sits close to the old 'armed' meaning.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having a heel, often of a specified type, as in high-heeled or low-heeled.

   She switched to flat shoes after years of wearing heeled ones.

   The dancers preferred heeled footwear that clicked sharply on the wooden stage.

   Oppositeflat

   Note

   This adjective is built the way bearded or winged are built: the noun heel plus -ed, meaning 'having one'. Alone it simply separates heeled shoes from flat ones, but it does most of its work as the second half of a compound that names the kind of heel: high-heeled, low-heeled. Before a noun those compounds take a hyphen, as in a pair of high-heeled boots.

3. 3
   adjectiveslang

   Having enough money; financially well-off.

   The newcomers were clearly heeled, judging by their cars and their clothes.

   After the deal closed, he was suddenly heeled enough to buy the whole block.

   Similarwealthy, rich, affluent, flush, loaded

   Oppositepoor, broke, penniless

   Note

   The money sense is slang, and it can mean simply having enough to pay one's way. William S. Burroughs, writing to Jack Kerouac in 1949, tells him Neal may come too 'if he is heeled'. On its own the word keeps that casual edge. The compound well-heeled carries the meaning into ordinary prose.

Showing meanings only. Show all 4