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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

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

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

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

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

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

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

"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

There was even a piece of patch which had been put on it, though it had never been half-soled.

From The Brick Moon and Other Stories by Edward Everett Hale

There is not a truss of hay served to the cavalry, nor a pair of shoes half-soled in the regiment, that he don't know of it.

From Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 by Charles James Lever

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

You blamed robber, what do you mean charging six hours for half-soling them shoes?

From West Wind Drift by George Barr McCutcheon

A few weeks' scuffling over the gravelly ground, or a single day's steady sliding made them the subjects for half-soling, and then it was a question of only a very little time.

From A Boy's Town by William Dean Howells

All Equity might go in broken shoes, for any patching or half-soling the people got from him.

From A Modern Instance by William Dean Howells

The half-soling had evidently been home work, and the supply of pegs had been exhausted.

From The Plunderer by Douglas Duer