COVID toes

COVID toes noun: a PIIRS (“post-inflammatory infectious response syndrome”) associated with COVID-19, affecting mostly children, showing up as reddish or bluish swollen toes or fingers, with blisters or peeling skin.

Noun

COVID toes pl (plural only)

(informal, neologism, plural, plural-only) A PIIRS (“post-inflammatory infectious response syndrome”) associated with COVID-19, affecting mostly children, showing up as reddish or bluish swollen toes or fingers, with blisters or peeling skin.
- COVID toes usually begin with the patient noticing red or purple discoloration of the toes, and in some cases the skin can become raised or develop ulcerations.2020 January 14, “COVID Toes”, in Precision Foot and Ankle, P.A.
- Doctors identified a new symptom of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, informally dubbed “COVID toes.” The presence of purple or blue lesions on a patient’s feet and toes puzzles infectious disease experts.2020 April 21, Adrianna Rodriguez, “What are 'COVID toes'? Doctors discover symptom of coronavirus mostly seen in kids”, in USA Today
Synonyms:

MIS-C, PIMS-TS, PMIS, COVID-19 Kawasaki-like syndrome, COVID-19 Kawasaki-like disease

Examples of COVID toes in a sentence

Also known as pernio-like, pseudo-chilblain, acute acro-ischemia, and “COVID toes,” the pattern of acral lesions is described as erythematous to purple purpuric macules, papules, and/or vesicles.2020 June 25, Hernandez, Claudia, and Anna L. Bruckner, “Focus on “COVID toes””, in JAMA dermatology, →DOI, page 1003:
This chilblain-like acral pattern, mainly affecting the toes, has been referred to as “COVID toes.”2021 April 13, Kashetsky, Nadia, Ilya M. Mukovozov, and James Bergman, “Chilblain-Like Lesions (CLL) Associated With COVID-19 (“COVID...

Synonyms of COVID toes

MIS-C
PIMS-TS
PMIS
COVID-19 Kawasaki-like syndrome
COVID-19 Kawasaki-like disease

All synonyms of COVID toes

Origin of COVID toes

Blend of COVID-19 + toe. From being first observed in children who tested positive for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 infection).

Questions about COVID toes

What does COVID toes mean?: COVID toes means a PIIRS (“post-inflammatory infectious response syndrome”) associated with COVID-19, affecting mostly children, showing up as reddish or bluish swollen toes or fingers, with blisters or peeling skin.
How do you use COVID toes in a sentence?: Also known as pernio-like, pseudo-chilblain, acute acro-ischemia, and “COVID toes,” the pattern of acral lesions is described as erythematous to purple purpuric macules, papules, and/or vesicles.
What part of speech is COVID toes?: COVID toes is a noun.

Words near COVID toes in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: COVID toes (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “COVID toes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/covid_toes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.