Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A form made of wood, metal, or other inflexible material inserted into a shoe to stretch it or preserve its shape.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A foot shaped device placed in a shoe to maintain its shape when not being worn.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a wooden or metal device that is inserted into a shoe to preserve its shape when it is not being worn
  • verb stretch (a shoe) on a shoetree

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I discovered that shoes could be stretched by: the shoemaker; a shoetree-like device bought by mail-order; by soaking new shoes in "shoe-stretch" and wearing them around the house with sweat socks, and I frequented depressing shoe stores that advertised specials for wide and long feet.

    Jane Barowitz: The Sisterhood of Women with Big Feet 2009

  • Ordinarily vampires could take all I had to give and break me like a shoetree.

    Dancing with Werewolves Carole Nelson Douglas 2009

  • Ordinarily vampires could take all I had to give and break me like a shoetree.

    Dancing with Werewolves Carole Nelson Douglas 2009

  • Ordinarily vampires could take all I had to give and break me like a shoetree.

    Dancing with Werewolves Carole Nelson Douglas 2009

  • Any winged aircraft, from the smallest Cessna prop puppy to the biggest Boeing behemoth, was a romantic artifact, a swoozy sculpture, a sailing thing of irresistible appeal; but a helicopter ... a helicopter was like a funky old shoetree that a witch had caused to levitate.

    Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates Robbins, Tom 2000

  • Any winged aircraft, from the smallest Cessna prop puppy to the biggest Boeing behemoth, was a romantic artifact, a swoozy sculpture, a sailing thing of irresistible appeal; but a helicopter ... a helicopter was like a funky old shoetree that a witch had caused to levitate.

    Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates Robbins, Tom 2000

  • He proceeded to the edge of the orchard where a stray shoetree had rooted.

    The Source of Magic Anthony, Piers 1979

  • Finally, invest in a wooden shoetree to preserve the shape of the shoe.

    AskMen.com - HOME PAGE 2009

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