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• half sole
  half sole

  noun

  that part of the sole of a boot or shoe that extends from the shank to the end of the toe.
• half-sole
  half-sole

  verb (used with object)

  to repair or renew (a shoe) by putting on a new half sole.

half sole

¹ American  

noun

1. that part of the sole of a boot or shoe that extends from the shank to the end of the toe.

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half-sole ² American  

[haf-sohl, hahf-] / ˈhæfˌsoʊl, ˈhɑf- /

verb (used with object)

half-soled, half-soling

1. to repair or renew (a shoe) by putting on a new half sole.

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half-sole British  

noun

1. a sole from the shank of a shoe to the toe

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verb

1. (tr) to replace the half-sole of (a shoe)

Etymology

Origin of half sole¹

First recorded in 1860–65

Origin of half-sole²

First recorded in 1785–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

half-sole half-soled half-soling

She ought to have saved the twenty cents toward a new half-sole.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

A half-sole footprint with circles—two holes in the center like a pair of eyes.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

Some he would half-sole, some he would patch, some he would stitch around, and occasionally he would also put on new uppers.

From Where Love Is There God Is Also by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Another pair is of half-soles with sharp ridges of iron, set, one the length of the half-sole, the other across it.

From Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820) by Earle, Alice Morse

On the third evening they sat outside, Danny watching Jed put a new half-sole on a cast-off riding boot.

From I Conquered by Titus, Harold

"We used to work several months to make enough for a pair of shoes," he says, "and had them half-soled so many times your foot was an inch off the ground."

From Time Magazine Archive

"I had my shoes half-soled oftener than any other student," he jokes today.

From Time Magazine Archive

I think about the shoes of my childhood, the brown Oxfords scuffed at the toes, half-soled, new-heeled, the falling-apart grubby white running shoes, the brown sandals with two buckles that you wore with socks.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

All New Thought is revelation, and secondhand revelations are errors half-soled with stupidity and heeled with greed.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 10 Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers by Hubbard, Elbert

Aunt Eunice is pressing my best suit, and Mack has gone down-town after the shoes that I left to be half-soled.

From Flip's "Islands of Providence" by Bonsall, Elizabeth Fearne

Sample: paving only the center lanes of streets to make his repair funds stretch twice as far, a practice Louisville refers to as "half-soling" the streets.

From Time Magazine Archive

He found Joe at his bench, half-soling a pair of shoes.

From The Unknown Wrestler by Cody, H. A. (Hiram Alfred)

Finding that impossible he sank into his chair and began a vague remark about the shoe his host was half-soling, all which the latter took as a matter-of-course, not seeming to notice, even.

From Joyce's Investments A Story for Girls by Newberry, Fannie E.

However, the doctor had so far eliminated all expenditures in that quarter, save only for a little half-soling matter week before last.

From V. V.'s Eyes by Harrison, Henry Sydnor

If times got hard, the poor little shoemakers made a living mending, half-soling, straightening up the heels.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 4 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Lectures by Ingersoll, Robert Green