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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

"You can trim your toenails with it and half-sole your boots," he said.

From The Duke Of Chimney Butte by Ivory, P. V. E. (Percy Van Eman)

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 Harper, Ida Husted

Substantial people, who half-sole their shoes and endow colleges.

From The Vertical City by Hurst, Fannie

"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

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 Smith, Francis Hopkinson

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

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 Howells, William Dean

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

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

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 Crosby, Raymond Moreau

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