Other forms: heels
Your heel is the hard rounded back of your foot, the part that hits the ground first when you walk. It cracks in summer, blisters in new shoes, and takes the plaster.
A shoe has one too: the block under the back of it, and in the plural heels means high-heeled shoes — she kicked off her heels at the door. Dogs are taught heel, which means walk at my leg and stop pulling. The heel of a loaf is the end crust nobody wants. Phrases sit thick around this word: your Achilles heel is the single weakness in something otherwise strong, to dig your heels in is to refuse to move an inch, and one thing follows hot on the heels of another. In old films a heel is a man who treats people badly — dated now, but you still meet it.
1nounheelThe rounded back part of the human foot, below the ankle.~28%
“A stone in her shoe was digging into her heel.”
2nounraisedThe raised block under the back part of a shoe.~41%
“The heel of his boot had worn down on one side.”
3nounhighShoes with high heels, in the plural.~27%
“She walked to the station in flat shoes and changed into heels there.”
4nouncommandA command telling a dog to walk close beside you.~2%
“He whistled once and the dog came to heel.”
5nounendThe end crust of a loaf of bread.~2%
“Nobody in this house will eat the heel of the loaf.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (4 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
heel is a part of the foot.
Heel comes straight down the Germanic line: Old English hēla, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz, a small form of *hanhaz, 'heel, hock'. The hock is the same joint on an animal's back leg, so the word began life meaning a little hock. Dutch hiel, Swedish häl and Norwegian hæl are the same word, barely altered.
Middle English
hele
English, today
heel
From Middle English hele. From Middle English hele, from Old English hēla, from Proto-West Germanic hą̄hilō, from Proto-Germanic hanhilaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic hanhaz (“heel, hock”), equivalent to hock + le. More at hock. Compare frr haiel, West Frisian hyl, Dutch hiel, German Low German Hiel, Danish - and Norwegian hæl, Swedish häl.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA