shoe
Americannoun
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shoes,
plural
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shoon
plural (especially British Dialect)
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an external covering for the human foot, usually of leather and consisting of a more or less stiff or heavy sole and a lighter upper part ending a short distance above, at, or below the ankle.
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an object or part resembling a shoe in form, position, or use.
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a horseshoe or a similar plate for the hoof of some other animal.
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a ferrule or the like, as of iron, for protecting the end of a staff, pole, etc.
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the outer casing of a pneumatic automobile tire.
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a drag or skid for a wheel of a vehicle.
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a part having a larger area than the end of an object on which it fits, serving to disperse or apply its weight or thrust.
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the sliding contact by which an electric car or locomotive takes its current from the third rail.
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Civil Engineering.
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a member supporting one end of a truss or girder in a bridge.
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a hard and sharp foot of a pile or caisson for piercing underlying soil.
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a small molding, as a quarter round, closing the angle between a baseboard and a floor.
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the outwardly curved portion at the base of a downspout.
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a piece of iron or stone, sunk into the ground, against which the leaves of a gateway are shut.
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a device on a camera that permits an accessory, as a flashgun, to be attached.
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a band of iron on the bottom of the runner of a sleigh.
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Cards. dealing box.
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Furniture.
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a cuplike metal piece for protecting the bottom of a leg.
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a fillet beneath an ornamental foot, as a pad or scroll foot.
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Printing. a box into which unusable type is thrown.
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a chute conveying grain to be ground into flour.
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Carpentry. soleplate.
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Nautical. a thickness of planking covering the bottom of the keel of a wooden vessel to protect it against rubbing.
verb (used with object)
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shoes,
present (3rd person singular)
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shod,
past participle, past
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shoed,
past participle, past
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shodden,
past participle (Archaic)
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shoeing
present participle
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to provide or fit with a shoe or shoes.
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to protect or arm at the point, edge, or face with a ferrule, metal plate, or the like.
idioms
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fill someone's shoes, to take the place and assume the obligations of another person.
She felt that no stepmother could ever hope to fill her late mother's shoes.
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the shoe is on the other foot, the circumstances are reversed; a change of places has occurred.
Now that we are rich and they are poor the shoe is on the other foot.
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where the shoe pinches, the true cause of the trouble or worry.
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drop the other shoe, to complete an action or enterprise already begun.
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in someone's shoes, in a position or situation similar to that of another.
I wouldn't like to be in his shoes.
noun
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one of a matching pair of coverings shaped to fit the foot, esp one ending below the ankle, having an upper of leather, plastic, etc, on a sole and heel of heavier leather, rubber, or synthetic material
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( as modifier )
shoe cleaner
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anything resembling a shoe in shape, function, position, etc, such as a horseshoe
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a band of metal or wood on the bottom of the runner of a sledge
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(in baccarat, etc) a boxlike device for holding several packs of cards and allowing the cards to be dispensed singly
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a base for the supports of a superstructure of a bridge, roof, etc
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a metal collector attached to an electric train that slides along the third rail and picks up power for the motor
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engineering a lining to protect from and withstand wear See brake shoe pile shoe
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informal to be in another person's situation
verb
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to furnish with shoes
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to fit (a horse) with horseshoes
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to furnish with a hard cover, such as a metal plate, for protection against friction or bruising
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shoesimple
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shoessimple
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have shodperfect
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have shoddenperfect
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have shoedperfect
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has shodperfect
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has shoddenperfect
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has shoedperfect
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am shoeingprogressive
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are shoeingprogressive
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is shoeingprogressive
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have been shoeingperfect progressive
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has been shoeingperfect progressive
Past
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shodsimple
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shoedsimple
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had shodperfect
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had shoddenperfect
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had shoedperfect
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was shoeingprogressive
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were shoeingprogressive
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had been shoeingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shoe
First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English scho(o), Old English sceō(h), cognate with German Schuh, Old Norse skōr, Gothic skōhs; (verb) Middle English schon, Old English scōg(e)an, cognate with Middle Low German schoi(g)en, Old Norse skūa
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On Sunday, officials reported that 19 people who had participated in the race, sponsored by the popular running shoe brand Hoka and organized by the group Run Local, were hospitalized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2026
The clothing and footwear maker’s CEO said he is balancing longer-term optimism for a full recovery in its Vans shoe operation against near-term caution.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
Most elite runners who work at shoe stores need the money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
Among them, Amazon Prime Air is in the process of expanding deliveries to nearly 500 cities and towns, delivering items that fit into a space the size of a shoe box.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
He kind of needed one because residents always wanted something from him— stamps, or batteries for their remote controls, or shoe polish—and it was hard to keep track.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
"You come across quite a few pawprints from animals and old shoes, where they used to walk across the clay while they were being fired," he said.
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2026
We literally will put bags and shoes into the machine and we’ll look at the internal construction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2026
“I was super into the graffiti scene when I was young, and I started painting shoes and doing art in different mediums,” McCoy says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026
“Fertilize the fig trees, straighten up the coat closet, fix the coffee machine, tidy the garage, grill the chicken, take the Chanel shoes to get stretched,” House said, rattling off her tasks for the day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
I thought the little old lady was going to jump right out of her shoes.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
A typical stanza: Tell me by what art thou bindest On thy feet those ancient shoon: Tell me, Grinder, if thou grindest Always, always out of tune.
From Time Magazine Archive
The stockings they are Gib my man's, They came first to my hand; And this is Gib my man's shoon; At my bed feet they stand.
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume II (of 8) by Various
III There were Faëries two or three, Wee white caps and red wee shoon, Buckles at each dainty knee, "We are come to comfort thee, With the silver moon."
From The Triumph of Music And Other Lyrics by Madison Julius Cawein
An' noo to face the kirkward mile: The guidman's hat o' dacent style, The blackit shoon, we noo maun fyle As white's the miller: A waefü' peety tae, to spile The warth o' siller.
From A Lowden Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson
Throw by that walloping surtout— On wi' my auld red jacket— Haul aff thae gripless Wellingtons For yon shoon wi' mony a tacket.
From Poems on Golf by Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society
Because the hybrid is more asphalt-focused, it gets shod with the 21-inch all-season tires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump is so smitten with his Florsheim dress shoes that he shod his whole Cabinet in the same footwear.
From Slate ● Mar. 14, 2026
Dsquared2 also presented for autumn-winter 2026-27 an army of holidaymakers shod in provocative footwear.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
But when he faces down a more traditionally shod and tailored adversary, Boy Kavalier unleashes his dogs as negotiating weapons.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2025
His shoes were shod with silver, and they rang hollowly as he stepped over the threshold.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
Only 18 people shoed up for a debate we hosted, and we had received only seven letters.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 23, 2020
“You got up in the morning, you tended to your horses, you cleaned the hooves out, shoed them and fed them,” Elliott said.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 10, 2016
She hates heels, feels like a shoed horse in them.
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2012
"One could meditate on Bible verses as one shoed a horse, or patched a pair of trousers, or planed a door."
From Time Magazine Archive
Smiths straightened swords, knocked dents from breastplates, and shoed destriers and pack mules alike.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
But oh! the slips of those who are shodden with vanity!
From Autobiography and Letters of Orville Dewey, D.D. Edited by his Daughter by Mary Elizabeth Dewey
On either side, in purple distance, sprang sky-piercing obelisks and vapor-mantled glaciers, spangled with bright snow, and shodden with eternal forest.
From Erema — My Father's Sin by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
"Black fellow," I said to myself; but no, those were shodden feet that swept along so wearily.
From Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn by Henry Kingsley
Therefore, without more hesitation, I plunged into the middle way, holding a long ash-staff before me, shodden at the end with iron.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 5 by Hamilton Wright Mabie
After leaving school at 16 with no qualifications, Paul started working for his father but saw little future in shoeing horses and earning "the equivalent of 75p per horse and the chance to be kicked".
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2025
They had to chart new paths through the forest because the sorts of trails used for hiking, mountain biking, snow shoeing or cross-country skiing aren’t suited for skating.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2022
“I think they got greedy and sloppy. It defies logic to improve every horse you get. You can change shoeing equipment, surface, vitamins, but you can’t improve every horse.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 17, 2020
Cherry’s curiosity about people’s lives produced finely observed pictures of immigrants, street vendors, bocce players, farriers shoeing Central Park carriage horses, construction workers, fruit auctioneers and children watching in amazement as an airplane flew overhead.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2019
Exception 2.—Words ending in oe retain the e to preserve the sound of the root: as, shoe + ing = shoeing; hoe + ing = hoeing.
From New Word-Analysis by William Swinton
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