shoe
Americannoun
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shoes,
plural
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shoon
plural (especially British Dialect)
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an external covering for the human foot, usually of leather and consisting of a more or less stiff or heavy sole and a lighter upper part ending a short distance above, at, or below the ankle.
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an object or part resembling a shoe in form, position, or use.
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a horseshoe or a similar plate for the hoof of some other animal.
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a ferrule or the like, as of iron, for protecting the end of a staff, pole, etc.
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the outer casing of a pneumatic automobile tire.
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a drag or skid for a wheel of a vehicle.
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a part having a larger area than the end of an object on which it fits, serving to disperse or apply its weight or thrust.
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the sliding contact by which an electric car or locomotive takes its current from the third rail.
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Civil Engineering.
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a member supporting one end of a truss or girder in a bridge.
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a hard and sharp foot of a pile or caisson for piercing underlying soil.
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a small molding, as a quarter round, closing the angle between a baseboard and a floor.
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the outwardly curved portion at the base of a downspout.
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a piece of iron or stone, sunk into the ground, against which the leaves of a gateway are shut.
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a device on a camera that permits an accessory, as a flashgun, to be attached.
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a band of iron on the bottom of the runner of a sleigh.
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Cards. dealing box.
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Furniture.
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a cuplike metal piece for protecting the bottom of a leg.
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a fillet beneath an ornamental foot, as a pad or scroll foot.
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Printing. a box into which unusable type is thrown.
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a chute conveying grain to be ground into flour.
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Carpentry. soleplate.
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Nautical. a thickness of planking covering the bottom of the keel of a wooden vessel to protect it against rubbing.
verb (used with object)
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shoes,
present (3rd person singular)
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shod,
past participle, past
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shoed,
past participle, past
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shodden,
past participle (Archaic)
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shoeing
present participle
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to provide or fit with a shoe or shoes.
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to protect or arm at the point, edge, or face with a ferrule, metal plate, or the like.
idioms
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fill someone's shoes, to take the place and assume the obligations of another person.
She felt that no stepmother could ever hope to fill her late mother's shoes.
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the shoe is on the other foot, the circumstances are reversed; a change of places has occurred.
Now that we are rich and they are poor the shoe is on the other foot.
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where the shoe pinches, the true cause of the trouble or worry.
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drop the other shoe, to complete an action or enterprise already begun.
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in someone's shoes, in a position or situation similar to that of another.
I wouldn't like to be in his shoes.
noun
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one of a matching pair of coverings shaped to fit the foot, esp one ending below the ankle, having an upper of leather, plastic, etc, on a sole and heel of heavier leather, rubber, or synthetic material
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( as modifier )
shoe cleaner
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anything resembling a shoe in shape, function, position, etc, such as a horseshoe
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a band of metal or wood on the bottom of the runner of a sledge
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(in baccarat, etc) a boxlike device for holding several packs of cards and allowing the cards to be dispensed singly
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a base for the supports of a superstructure of a bridge, roof, etc
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a metal collector attached to an electric train that slides along the third rail and picks up power for the motor
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engineering a lining to protect from and withstand wear See brake shoe pile shoe
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informal to be in another person's situation
verb
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to furnish with shoes
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to fit (a horse) with horseshoes
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to furnish with a hard cover, such as a metal plate, for protection against friction or bruising
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shoesimple
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shoessimple
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have shodperfect
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have shoddenperfect
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have shoedperfect
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has shodperfect
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has shoddenperfect
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has shoedperfect
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am shoeingprogressive
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are shoeingprogressive
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is shoeingprogressive
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have been shoeingperfect progressive
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has been shoeingperfect progressive
Past
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shodsimple
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shoedsimple
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had shodperfect
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had shoddenperfect
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had shoedperfect
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was shoeingprogressive
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were shoeingprogressive
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had been shoeingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shoe
First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English scho(o), Old English sceō(h), cognate with German Schuh, Old Norse skōr, Gothic skōhs; (verb) Middle English schon, Old English scōg(e)an, cognate with Middle Low German schoi(g)en, Old Norse skūa
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, who married wife Kim in 2015, famously briefly lost his wedding band after playing with it tied to his shoe laces.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
He looked around to find the missing shoe and noticed one of the plump rodents sneaking peaks at him from behind a log.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Jackson flags this exact relationship in her dissent, as the court’s new ruling Monday “lets another shoe drop in the Kafkaesque nightmare that our precedents have been steadily creating for certain plaintiffs.”
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
In the era of NIL, she got an agent, signed a shoe deal, transferred to Sierra Canyon and became the No. 1 player in the country before signing with USC and becoming a national figure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
He removed the backpack containing his mother’s shoe and dropped the pack into the river.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
She managed to grab hold of her daughter's foot, but her shoes were coated in engine oil from the overturned vessel and she slipped through her hands.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
"School uniforms, shoes, haircuts, etc, it all adds up and if we can just help take one cost away it's a massive deal for us."
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Paramedics in Japan have a problem — polite homeowners rearranging their shoes.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
Jeff Weit, 66, now ties his shoes together at camp after a marmot stole one on a previous trip.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
My shoes and my little satchel with the bobbin and waterskin.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
A typical stanza: Tell me by what art thou bindest On thy feet those ancient shoon: Tell me, Grinder, if thou grindest Always, always out of tune.
From Time Magazine Archive
An' noo to face the kirkward mile: The guidman's hat o' dacent style, The blackit shoon, we noo maun fyle As white's the miller: A waefü' peety tae, to spile The warth o' siller.
From A Lowden Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson
"And how am I to get these iron shoon?" cried the Princess eagerly.
From The Scottish Fairy Book by Elizabeth Wilson Grierson
The young birkie had neither hat nor shoon, but he did not spare the stick; round and round they flew like daft.
From Amusing Prose Chap Books by Various
"Aye, that I will," said the old woman, "and not the less willingly that you gave me hose and shoon, when I greatly needed them."
From Curiosities of Human Nature by Anonymous
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump is so smitten with his Florsheim dress shoes that he shod his whole Cabinet in the same footwear.
From Slate ● Mar. 14, 2026
Dsquared2 also presented for autumn-winter 2026-27 an army of holidaymakers shod in provocative footwear.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
But when he faces down a more traditionally shod and tailored adversary, Boy Kavalier unleashes his dogs as negotiating weapons.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2025
Brown and Green kept me moving — if not dancing, exactly — shod in my first pair of proper gardening boots, which were, serendipitously, brown and green.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 25, 2023
His shoes were shod with silver, and they rang hollowly as he stepped over the threshold.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
Only 18 people shoed up for a debate we hosted, and we had received only seven letters.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 23, 2020
“You got up in the morning, you tended to your horses, you cleaned the hooves out, shoed them and fed them,” Elliott said.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 10, 2016
She hates heels, feels like a shoed horse in them.
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2012
John rubbed all eight horses, galloped them, even shoed them.
From Time Magazine Archive
Smiths straightened swords, knocked dents from breastplates, and shoed destriers and pack mules alike.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
But oh! the slips of those who are shodden with vanity!
From Autobiography and Letters of Orville Dewey, D.D. Edited by his Daughter by Mary Elizabeth Dewey
"Black fellow," I said to myself; but no, those were shodden feet that swept along so wearily.
From Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn by Henry Kingsley
On either side, in purple distance, sprang sky-piercing obelisks and vapor-mantled glaciers, spangled with bright snow, and shodden with eternal forest.
From Erema — My Father's Sin by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
Therefore, without more hesitation, I plunged into the middle way, holding a long ash-staff before me, shodden at the end with iron.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 5 by Hamilton Wright Mabie
Discuss shoeing and hoof care options with a farrier.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
They had to chart new paths through the forest because the sorts of trails used for hiking, mountain biking, snow shoeing or cross-country skiing aren’t suited for skating.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2022
“I think they got greedy and sloppy. It defies logic to improve every horse you get. You can change shoeing equipment, surface, vitamins, but you can’t improve every horse.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 17, 2020
Cherry’s curiosity about people’s lives produced finely observed pictures of immigrants, street vendors, bocce players, farriers shoeing Central Park carriage horses, construction workers, fruit auctioneers and children watching in amazement as an airplane flew overhead.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2019
Purses were often smaller than the cost of shoeing a horse—about $1.40.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
