toe

 
Pronunciation: /təʊ/

noun

  • 1any of the five digits at the end of the human foot: he cut his big toe on a sharp stone
  • any of the digits of the foot of a quadruped or bird.
  • the part of an item of footwear that covers a person’s toes: socks that were holed at the toes
  • 2the lower end, tip, or point of something, in particular:
  • the tip of the head of a golf club, furthest from the shaft.
  • the base of a cliff, slope, or embankment: valley widening and river meandering have eroded the toe of the slopes and caused new landslides
  • a flattish portion at the foot of an otherwise steep curve on a graph: the contrast potential of the printing is indicated by the steepness of the curve from shoulder to toe
  • a section of a rhizome or similar fleshy root from which a new plant may be propagated.

verb (toes, toeing, toed)

  • 1 [with object and usually with adverbial] push, touch, or kick with one’s toe: he toed off his shoes and flexed his feet
  • Golf strike (the ball) with the toe of the club.
  • 2 [no object] (toe in/out) walk with the toes pointed in (or out): he toes out when he walks
  • (of a pair of wheels) converge (or diverge) slightly at the front: on a turn, the inner wheel toes out more

Phrases

make someone's toes curl

informal bring about an extreme reaction of embarrassment or delight in someone: it made her toes curl just listening to him

on one's toes

ready for any eventuality; alert: he carries out random spot checks to keep everyone on their toes

toe the line

accept the authority, policies, or principles of a particular group, especially unwillingly: he knew that he had to toe the official line because he couldn’t afford to be put on the dole
[from the literal sense 'stand with the tips of the toes exactly touching a line']

toe to toe

(of two people) standing directly in front of one another, especially in order to fight or argue: there’s little skill involved—you just stand toe to toe and hit each other!

turn up one's toes

informal die: the house will be yours when I turn up my toes

Derivatives

toed

adjective
[in combination]: steel-toed boots

toeless

adjective

Origin:

Old English tā, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch tee and German Zeh, Zehe. Current senses of the verb date from the mid 19th century

The phrase toe the line, derived from an earlier sense ‘stand with one’s toes touching a line, as for a contest’, is sometimes misunderstood and written as tow the line. In the Oxford English Corpus around 15 per cent of the citations for the phrase are for the erroneous form.

Spelling help

Keep the e in toeing; it does not follow the usual rule that a final silent e is dropped when adding endings that begin with a vowel.

Do not confuse toe with tow. The correct phrase is toe the line, which originally meant 'stand with the tips of the toes exactly touching a line' (for instance, at the start of a race).