toed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of toe.

   The recruits toed the line and stood at attention.

   For years the junior staff toed the firm's conservative position without complaint.

   Note

   A regular verb form, so past tense and participle share one spelling: she toed the ball forward; the stocking was toed in red wool. After be it overlaps with the carpenter's adjective, since a joist toed into a beam has been nailed through its side at a slant. Do not confuse it with the "having toes" adjective, which comes from the noun rather than the verb.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Of an animal or foot, having a specified number or type of toes.

   Sloths are three-toed mammals that hang from branches for most of the day.

   Ostriches are unusual among birds in being two-toed rather than four-toed.

   Note

   Built from the noun toe plus -ed, and almost never used on its own. It attaches to a number or a describing word in front of it, as in three-toed and narrow-toed, and the whole compound is hyphenated, as in a three-toed sloth. The same pattern shapes many body-part adjectives, so a bare "toed" sounds unfinished in this meaning.

3. 3
   adjective

   Fastened by nails driven in at an angle, as a brace, board, or joist joined diagonally to other parts of a frame.

   Each toed rafter was held by nails driven in on a slant rather than straight through the face.

   The old frame relied on a toed brace running diagonally to the corner post.

   Note

   Framing language, taken from the verb toe in its carpentry meaning and unrelated to the toes-on-a-foot adjective. It describes a brace, plank or joist whose end is held by diagonal nailing into the part it meets. It does not take more or most, because a brace is either toed or it is not.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3