French heel

American  

noun

1. a high, curved heel, characterized by a heel breast curving into a shank, used on women's shoes.

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French heel British  

noun

1. a fairly high and narrow-waisted heel on women's shoes

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Other Word Forms

• French-heeled
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of French heel

First recorded in 1655–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

French heel

Elvira set the French heel of her slipper in the centre of a rose upon her carpet and spun round upon it till her flounces stood out.

From The Mormon Prophet by Lily Dougall

My French heel caught on the stair; it was torn away.

From The President A novel by Alfred Henry Lewis

I was just fishing for an opening to land when Wilbur stayed my upraised arm, and I could only give her a kick on the limb with my French heel.

From The Sorrows of a Show Girl by Kenneth McGaffey

The woman's shoe adds the so-called French heel to the evidence of enforced leisure afforded by its polish; because this high heel obviously makes any, even the simplest and most necessary manual work extremely difficult.

From Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen

I think it was the eldest Miss Lopez; I couldn't see her face, but I remember looking at the high French heel of her little shoe.

From Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard by Joseph Conrad