Word.ws English Dictionary

dig in one's heels

dig in one's heels verb: to act in a determined manner by firmly maintaining one's beliefs, demands, situation, etc. in the face of opposition or cajoling.

dig in one's heels: to act in a determined manner by firmly maintaining one's beliefs, demands, situation, etc. in the...
Image: Johnmoore6, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

dig in one's heels (third-person singular simple present digs in one's heels, present participle digging in one's heels, simple past and past participle dug in one's heels)

  1. (idiomatic) To act in a determined manner by firmly maintaining one's beliefs, demands, situation, etc. in the face of opposition or cajoling.
    • What we want are more women of combined business efficiency and integrity to get into public life and dig in their heels against the forces of war, lust, and injustice.1938 July 16, Jean Kelvin, “The Tug of War”, in Glasgow Herald, retrieved 18 Jul 2011, page 8
    • Margaret Thatcher tried to do it again, digging in her heels, lecturing archly on her achievements, illuminating our European partners on the superior virtue of her ways.1989 June 28, Flora Lewis, “Foreign Affairs: Maggie on the Beach”, in New York Times, retrieved 18 Jul 2011

Synonyms of dig in one's heels

Forms of dig in one's heels

third-person singular presentdigs in one's heels
present participledigging in one's heels
past participledug in one's heels
pastdug in one's heels

Origin of dig in one's heels

From firmly placing one’s heels in the ground, particularly in tug of war (pulling) or when bracing oneself (pushing). Compare drag one's feet (“act slowly, from lack of enthusiasm or to delay”).

Questions about dig in one's heels

What does dig in one's heels mean?
Dig in one's heels means to act in a determined manner by firmly maintaining one's beliefs, demands, situation, etc. in the face of opposition or cajoling.
What part of speech is dig in one's heels?
Dig in one's heels is a verb.
What is the past tense of dig in one's heels?
The past tense of dig in one's heels is dug in one's heels.

Words near dig in one's heels in the dictionary

  1. dig boxes
  2. dig deep
  3. dig down
  4. dig for victory
  5. dig in
  6. dig in one's heels
  7. dig into
  8. dig on
  9. dig one's grave with a fork
  10. dig one's grave with a fork and spoon
  11. dig one's heels in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dig in one's heels (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-dig in one's heels.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dig in one's heels.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dig_in_one%27s_heels. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.