Word.ws English Dictionary

on the heels of

on the heels of preposition: in close pursuit of; close behind.

Preposition

on the heels of

  1. (idiomatic) In close pursuit of; close behind.
    • A quarrelsome band of footsore sulky niggers trod on the heels of the donkey.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 219...
    • On the heels of the little lop-sided man appeared an overgrown dolt of a fat youth, followed by another youth.1915, Jack London, chapter 5, in Mutiny of the Elsinore
  2. (idiomatic, usually, facts) Closely following; in succession immediately after.
    • One woe doth tread upon another's heel.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • To avoid these dreadful consequences, that tread upon the heels of those allowances to sin, will be a task of far more difficulty.1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], chapter 4, in The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC

Examples of on the heels of in a sentence

  • Hard on the heels of the last Ostend boat train comes the first Calais train to connect with the sailing of the Invicta from Berth 2 directly opposite the platform end.1959 October, T. W. E. Roche, “Traffic Working at Dover Marine Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 680:
  • [T]he men got out quickly, the first ones running on the heels of those who had gotten out of the Mercedes.2001, Yonatan Netanyahu, The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu, →ISBN, page 288:
  • Hard on the heels of of punctuality and reliability comes capacity.2023 April 5, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Pay deal a positive result”, in RAIL, number 980, page 3:
  • [A] familiar voice chimed instantly in on the heels of my last word, […]1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “”, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing...

Forms of on the heels of

alternative formupon the heels of

Words formed from on the heels of

Questions about on the heels of

What does on the heels of mean?
On the heels of means in close pursuit of; close behind.
How do you use on the heels of in a sentence?
Hard on the heels of the last Ostend boat train comes the first Calais train to connect with the sailing of the Invicta from Berth 2 directly opposite the platform end.
What part of speech is on the heels of?
On the heels of is a preposition.

Words near on the heels of in the dictionary

  1. on the gridiron
  2. on the gripping hand
  3. on the grog
  4. on the ground
  5. on the half hour
  6. on the heels of
  7. on the high rope
  8. on the high ropes
  9. on the hog
  10. on the hog train
  11. on the hoof

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the heels of (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-on the heels of.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the heels of.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_heels_of. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.