Word.ws English Dictionary

heel-and-toe

heel-and-toe noun: a dance move in which the dancer alternately places or taps the heel and then the toe of the same foot; also used of various other sequences involving heel and toe movements.

Noun

heel-and-toe (uncountable)

  1. A dance move in which the dancer alternately places or taps the heel and then the toe of the same foot; also used of various other sequences involving heel and toe movements.
    • [T]he young bachelors that wanted to show aff their dancin' an' their new pumps, an' their bright red or green an' yellow garthers, swore that it confused thim so that they cud nivir go rightly through the heel-and-toe, or cover-the-buckle, or any uv their best steps, but felt thimsilves always...1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 524
  2. (attributive) An advanced driving technique that involves operating the throttle and brake pedals simultaneously with the right foot, facilitating normal activation of the clutch with the left foot.
  3. (attributive) A mode of walking in which the heel of one foot is put on the ground before the toe of the other leaves it.
    Synonyms:
    toe-and-heel
  4. Of a system of watches: comprising equal-length periods on and off watch.
    • It is most essential on a passage where the watches are heel and toe, four on, four off, that the watch below be a time of real rest.1965, Boating (volume 18, numbers 1-6, page 28)
    • Back when we'd started the heel-and-toe watches, I'd offset the schedule six hours in order to have both squadrons up and ready during the initial attack.2011, Phil Geusz, No Victory Won, page 354

Synonyms of heel-and-toe

Questions about heel-and-toe

What does heel-and-toe mean?
Heel-and-toe means a dance move in which the dancer alternately places or taps the heel and then the toe of the same foot; also used of various other sequences involving heel and toe movements.
What part of speech is heel-and-toe?
Heel-and-toe is a noun.

Words near heel-and-toe in the dictionary

  1. heel strikes
  2. heel turn
  3. heel turns
  4. heel up
  5. heel'd
  6. heel-and-toe
  7. heel-dragger
  8. heel-draggers
  9. heel-face turn
  10. heel-face turns
  11. heel-palm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heel-and-toe (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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