Word.ws English Dictionary

bringing to heel

bringing to heel is the present participle and gerund of bring to heel.

Meaning of bring to heel

Verb

bring to heel (third-person singular simple present brings to heel, present participle bringing to heel, simple past and past participle brought to heel)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To compel someone to obey; to force someone into a submissive condition.
    • They wanted a lesson, and they would get it; but it would take three months at least to bring them to heel.1906, John Galsworthy, chapter 12, in The Forsyte Saga, Part I
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To cause to act in a disciplined manner.

Questions about bringing to heel

What is bringing to heel the present participle and gerund of?
Bringing to heel is the present participle and gerund of bring to heel.

Words near bringing to heel in the dictionary

  1. bringing to a head
  2. bringing to an end
  3. bringing to bear
  4. bringing to bed
  5. bringing to ground
  6. bringing to heel
  7. bringing to justice
  8. bringing to life
  9. bringing to light
  10. bringing to mind
  11. bringing to naught

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bringing to heel (page history and authors); bring to heel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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