Word.ws English Dictionary

brings to heel

brings to heel is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 brings to heel

What is brings to heel the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Brings to heel is the third-person singular simple present indicative of bring to heel.

Words near brings to heel in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brings 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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Cite this entry: “brings to heel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brings_to_heel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.