Word.ws English Dictionary

took to one's heels

took to one's heels is the simple past of take to one's heels.

Meaning of take to one's heels

Verb

take to one's heels (third-person singular simple present takes to one's heels, present participle taking to one's heels, simple past took to one's heels, past participle taken to one's heels)

  1. (idiomatic) To leave, especially to flee or run away.
    • [T]hen, confused and frightened, he took to his heels; and, not knowing what he did, made off as fast as he could lay his feet to the ground.1839, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in Oliver Twist
    Synonyms:
    make tracks

Questions about took to one's heels

What is took to one's heels the simple past of?
Took to one's heels is the simple past of take to one's heels.

Words near took to one's heels in the dictionary

  1. took to
  2. took to court
  3. took to drink
  4. took to heart
  5. took to one's bosom
  6. took to one's heels
  7. took to task
  8. took to the bank
  9. took to the bricks
  10. took to the cleaner's
  11. took to the cleaners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took to one's heels (page history and authors); take to 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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