shoe
Pluralshoes
Pluralshoes
- 1A protective covering for the foot, with a tough sole, often of leather, rubber, or plastic, and a softer upper, that generally stops below the ankle, unlike a boot.
He slipped off one shoe to shake out a pebble.
The store sells running shoes, dress shoes, and sandals.
UsageUsually in pairs: a pair of shoes. You put on, take off and wear shoes.
- 2A shaped piece of metal fixed to the underside of a horse's hoof to protect it from wear; a horseshoe.
The farrier nailed a new shoe onto the gelding's hoof.
One of the shoes had worked loose during the long ride.
UsageOutside a stable, horseshoe is clearer. A horse that loses one has thrown a shoe.
Similarhorseshoe
- 3To put or fit shoes on a person or animal, especially to fit a horse with horseshoes.
A skilled farrier can shoe a draft horse in under an hour.
The stable hands shoe the racehorses before every meet.
UsagePast tense shod or shoed. The -ing form keeps the e: shoeing.
Note
The farrier's verb, and the one still in daily use: you shoe a horse. Thomas Hardy has a countryman say "Old Jimmy Harris only shoed her last week" in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874).
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- To shoe a horse means to fit it with horseshoes. en.wiktionary.org
- Thomas Hardy wrote Far from the Madding Crowd. gutenberg.org
- The quoted words occur in the novel as dialogue spoken by the countryman Jan Coggan. gutenberg.org
- Far from the Madding Crowd was first published in 1874. gutenberg.org
- 4A part that resembles footwear in its shape, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
The crane's outrigger rests on a wide steel shoe to spread the load.
Mechanics replaced the worn shoes that grip the cable on the lift.
Note
Workshop English borrowed the word for any part that does a shoe's job: it sits at the bottom of something, takes the wear, or meets the surface it moves on. The brake shoe is the familiar case, and the range runs from sleigh runners to machine bearing plates.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The technical senses include brake components. en.wiktionary.org
- The technical senses include protective pieces fitted beneath sleigh runners. en.wiktionary.org
- The technical senses include bearing pads in machinery. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 5A device that holds multiple decks of playing cards, dealing them out so more games can be played between shuffles.
The croupier slid each card smoothly from the shoe.
Casinos load several decks into the shoe to slow down card counters.
Note
A dealer's word from the casino floor: an angled, open-fronted box loaded with several shuffled decks at once. In games such as blackjack and baccarat, cards are drawn from it one at a time. The point is to keep play running longer between reshuffles. A single deck dealt from the hand needs no shoe.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- A conventional dealing shoe is an angled box with a front opening for withdrawing cards. patents.google.com
- A shoe holds multiple decks and permits more games between shuffles. en.wiktionary.org
- Cards are shuffled before being loaded into the shoe. massgaming.com
- Blackjack and baccarat use dealing shoes from which cards are withdrawn individually. en.wikipedia.org
- Using multiple decks in a shoe allows play to continue longer before reshuffling. en.wiktionary.org
- A single-deck game can be dealt by hand without a shoe. app.leg.wa.gov
- 6The contact part of a current collector on an electric train that touches a live rail or overhead wire to draw power.
The pickup shoe maintained steady contact with the conductor rail.
When the shoe lifted off the rail, the lights flickered.
- 7A pneumatic tire, or its outer casing and tread, especially on a car; often used informally in the plural.
Before the road trip, we put new shoes on the van so the old tires would not blow out.
After a winter on gravel roads, the pickup needed a new shoe on every wheel.
Similartire
- 8A band of iron or steel, or a strip of wood, fastened to the bottom of a sleigh's runner or any vehicle that slides over snow.
The blacksmith fitted a new shoe to the worn sleigh runner.
A steel shoe along each runner let the sleigh glide smoothly over packed snow.
- 9A sliding piece of wood or iron placed under the wheel of a loaded vehicle to slow it on a downhill slope.
The carter slipped a shoe under the rear wheel before the steep descent.
Without a shoe to drag against the road, the loaded wagon would have run away downhill.
Similarskid
- 10A plate or notched piece set between a moving part and the stationary part it bears on, taking the wear and allowing adjustment.
Engineers replaced the worn shoe between the slide and the bed of the lathe.
Each shoe takes the friction so the moving table itself does not wear down.
Note
An engineer's word that shares its job with two synonyms, slipper and gib. All three name a sacrificial piece set between a sliding part and the guide it bears on. The cheap plate wears instead of the machine, and it can be adjusted as it thins or replaced once it is spent. The three words name the same part.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Shoe, slipper and gib can name the same engineering component. en.wiktionary.org
- The component lies between moving and stationary parts and takes wear. en.wiktionary.org
- The component protects the machine's guide surfaces from wear. lathespares.com
- The component permits adjustment to compensate for wear. docs.travers.com
- A worn component can be replaced. sherline.com
- 11An iron socket or plate fitted to the end of a timber, such as a rafter or pile, to hold it in place or protect it.
The carpenter set each rafter foot into an iron shoe bolted to the beam.
A steel shoe anchors the strut where it pushes against the wall.
Similarsocket
- 12To cover something with a protective layer of material.
- 13A forged or counterfeit passport, especially one used to cross borders under a false identity.
- 14A trough- or spout-shaped piece at the foot of a downspout that directs rainwater away from the building.
- 15An inclined trough or spout in a mill that feeds grain or ore from the hopper to the grinding or crushing parts.
- 16A boat-shaped ingot of gold or silver, resembling a traditional Chinese shoe, formerly used as currency in trade across the Far East.
The finest gold among them is 100 touch, called Sycee, i. e. pure gold without alloy: so that if a shoe of gold touch 93, then it hath 93 parts of fine gold and 7 parts alloy.
1806, Lawrence Dundas Campbell, E. Samuel
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Origin
This word comes from Middle English "scho" and Old English "scoh" (shoe), going back through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic "*skohaz." Its deeper origin is unclear, though it may be linked to a root meaning "to move quickly." It is related to Dutch "schoen," German "Schuh," and the Scandinavian "sko."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Shoe descends from Middle English scho and Old English scoh, meaning shoe. en.wiktionary.org
- Its ancestry passes through Proto-West Germanic to Proto-Germanic *skohaz. en.wiktionary.org
- The deeper origin is uncertain. en.wiktionary.org
- A proposed derivation links it to a root meaning to move quickly. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch schoen, German Schuh, and Danish, Norwegian and Swedish sko are related words. en.wiktionary.org