heelful

noun

Etymology

From heel + -ful.

  1. derived from *hanhaz
  2. derived from *hanhilaz
  3. inherited from *hą̄hilō
  4. inherited from hēla
  5. inherited from hele
  6. suffixed as heelful — “heel + ful

Definitions

  1. As much as will cover a heel or a heel will displace.

    • It took several dozen "heelsful," winding it round the gathering ball on the leg, as one would wind a ball of string.
    • Away the boy ran, never minding a stubbed toe or a heelful of thistles that waylaid his course, and, setting the broken fence-cap against a rail, came panting back.
    • But people who dig in their heels frequently wind up digging their own graves behind them, heelful by heelful, as, in this hypothetical example, Johnson & Johnson climbs higher and higher.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for heelful. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA