Word.ws English Dictionary

toe-hold

toe-hold is the alternative form of toehold.

Meaning of toehold

Noun

toehold (plural toeholds)

  1. A foothold small enough to support just the toe.
  2. (broadly, figuratively) Any small advantage which allows one to make significant progress; a slight footing or foothold.
    • Were Herat to fall to the Persians, this would give the Russians a crucial and dangerous toe-hold in western Afghanistan.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 151
  3. A hold in which the aggressor bends back the opponent's foot.

Forms of toe-hold

pluraltoe-holds

Questions about toe-hold

What is toe-hold the alternative form of?
Toe-hold is the alternative form of toehold.

Words near toe-hold in the dictionary

  1. toe-dancing
  2. toe-dip
  3. toe-dipped
  4. toe-dipping
  5. toe-dips
  6. toe-hold
  7. toe-holds
  8. toe-jam
  9. toe-nail
  10. toe-nails
  11. toe-poke

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: toe-hold (page history and authors); toehold (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: “toe-hold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/toe-hold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.