Definitions

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

  • noun One of the digits of a vertebrate foot.
  • noun The forepart of a foot or hoof.
  • noun The terminal segment of an invertebrate's limb.
  • noun The part of a sock, shoe, or boot that covers the digits of the foot.
  • noun The lowest, outermost, or endmost part, as.
  • noun The part of the head of a golf club farthest from the shaft.
  • noun The part of a vertical shaft that turns in a bearing.
  • noun The lowest part of an embankment or dam.
  • noun Geology A protruding downslope end of an alluvial fan, glacier, or lava flow.
  • intransitive verb To touch, kick, or reach with the toe.
  • intransitive verb To drive (a golf ball) with the toe of the club.
  • intransitive verb To set or adjust at an oblique angle. Used with in or out.
  • intransitive verb To drive (a nail or spike) at an oblique angle.
  • intransitive verb To fasten or secure with obliquely driven nails or spikes.
  • intransitive verb To stand, walk, move, or be formed with the toes pointed in a specified direction.
  • idiom (on (one's) toes) Ready to act; alert.
  • idiom (step/tread) To hurt, offend, or encroach on the feelings, actions, or province of.
  • idiom (line/mark) To adhere to doctrines or rules conscientiously; conform.
  • idiom Sports & Games (line/mark) To touch a mark or line with the toe or hands in readiness for the start of a race or competition.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To touch or reach with the toes.
  • To furnish or provide a toe to or for; mend the toe of: as, to toe a stocking.
  • To place or move the toes, as in walking or dancing.
  • noun A digit of the foot, corresponding to a finger of the hand: as, the great toe; the little toe; the hind toe of a bird.
  • noun A digit of either foot, fore or hind, of a quadruped, especially when there are three or more (a large single toe, or a pair of large toes, inclosed in horn, being commonly called hoof).
  • noun The fore part, end, or tip of the hoof of an ungulate, as the horse.
  • noun The end of a stocking, shoe, or boot which contains or covers the toes: as, square or round toes; a hole in the toe.
  • noun A piece of iron welded under the front of a horseshoe, opposite the heels, to prevent slipping. See cut under shoe.
  • noun A projection from the foot-piece of an object to give it a broader bearing and greater stability.
  • noun A barb, stud, or projection on a lock-bolt.
  • noun In machinery:
  • noun The lower end of a vertical shaft, as a mill-spindle, which rests in a step.
  • noun An arm on the valve-lifting rod of a steam-engine.
  • noun In machinery: A form of cam by which the valve-rods are lifted in the Stevens valve-gear for vertical river-boat engines.
  • noun In a car-wheel, the outer edge of the flange.— 9. The pointed end of the foot of an organ-pipe.— 10. In golf, the nose of a club. See nose, 5.
  • In golf, to strike (a ball) off the toe of the club.— 4. To drive (nails or heavy steel pins) obliquely through a piece or element of a frame to secure it to another placed at an angle with it. The nails, entering both pieces, fasten them together against light stresses laterally, and the necessity for tenon and mortise is avoided.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) One of the terminal members, or digits, of the foot of a man or an animal.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The fore part of the hoof or foot of an animal.
  • noun Anything, or any part, corresponding to the toe of the foot.
  • noun The journal, or pivot, at the lower end of a revolving shaft or spindle, which rests in a step.
  • noun A lateral projection at one end, or between the ends, of a piece, as a rod or bolt, by means of which it is moved.
  • noun A projection from the periphery of a revolving piece, acting as a cam to lift another piece.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a tadpole; a polliwig.
  • noun (Med.) a morbid condition of the foot in which the toe is depressed and the heel elevated, as in talipes equinus. See Talipes.
  • transitive verb To touch or reach with the toes; to come fully up to.
  • intransitive verb To hold or carry the toes (in a certain way).
  • intransitive verb to stand or carry the feet in such a way that the toes of either foot incline toward the other.
  • intransitive verb to have the toes of each foot, in standing or walking, incline from the other foot.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English ; see deik- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English to, from Old English , (Mercian) tāhe, from Proto-Germanic *taihwōn (compare Dutch teen, German Zehe, Swedish ), from Proto-Germanic *tīhwanan (“to show, announce”) (compare Old English teōn ("to accuse"), German zeihen ("id.")), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”) (compare Hittite ... (tekkuššāi), Latin dīcere ("to say"), digitus ("finger"), Albanian thua ("nail"), accusative thoi, Ancient Greek δείκνυμι (deiknumi, "to point out, show"), Sanskrit ... (dídeṣṭi), दिशति (diśáti)).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word toe.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Toe: A part of the foot used to find furniture in the dark.

    (Rilla May)

    February 20, 2009