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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

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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

You do not expect a distinguished lawyer to clean his own clothes, a doctor to groom his horse, a teacher to take care of the schoolhouse furnace, a preacher to half-sole his shoes.

From The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV by Ida Husted Harper

There sat my Wandering Jew on his shoemaker's bench, trimming a half-sole.

From Sixes and Sevens by O. Henry

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 Alice Morse Earle

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

From Time Magazine Archive

"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 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

If they are patched or half-soled, no amount of diamond shirt studs or watch chain worn with them will save your respectability.

From The Other Fellow by Francis Hopkinson Smith

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 Elbert Hubbard

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

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 Fannie E. Newberry

If they was all on piece-work they couldn't earn enough to pay for half-soling the shoes which they wears out running about getting in one another's way.

From J. Poindexter, Colored by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

Well, Henkel's a cobbler—been one since '65—and let me tell you he's a blamed good one, and if you're ever in Petersburg and want any half-soling done, let me tell you—Yea-a-a!

From Queed by Raymond Moreau Crosby

He also remarked that part of the works needed half-soling.

From Sketches New and Old, Part 1. by Mark Twain

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