calced

A back-formation from discalced, with reference to Latin calceus (“calceus, footwear”).

In Ireland there appear to be seven or eight Carmelite Friaries, calced and discalced.

1884, William Edward Addis et al., “Carmelite”, in A Catholic Dictionary...:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:calced.

(rare) Synonym of shod, wearing shoes, particularly (Christianity) religious orders that do not eschew normal footwear.


knee sock

Nasty unpolished toe-crushing boots are equally acceptable, but don't let anyone see you wearing neat woolly knee-socks.

1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 62:

(chiefly in the plural) A sock that reaches almost up to the knee.


knee-high

Coordinate term: ankle-high

(US, usually in the plural) A sock or stocking that reaches to the knees; chiefly, women's nylon stockings that end slightly above the knee and supported by garter belts.


chopine

Borrowed from Middle French chapin, from Old Spanish chapín, from chapa (“type of metal plate or seal”), of imitative origin.

onomatopoeic

imitative

Byrlady your Ladyſhip is neerer Heauen then when I ſaw you laſt, by the altitude of a Choppine.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 263, column 2, lines 364-365:

He creaked to and fro, tiptoing up nearer heaven by the altitude of a chopine […]

1922 February, James Joyce, “[9]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

(historical, footwear) A type of women's platform shoe that was popular in the 15th and 16th centuries.


heel lift

A wedge type shoe insert that affixes inside any footwear to make the user look taller, or to correct anatomical leg deficiencies.


elevator shoe

Competitors try to achieve orgasm with partners selected in semi-darkness. The latter will be observed in better lighting to be wearing wigs, false teeth, whalebone corsets, softcons, and elevator shoes. They will confess in an intimate moment to having an obscure, incurable venereal disease or a serious heroin problem.

1976 August 21, Gary Jane Hoisington, “The Existential Olympics”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 8, page 7:


kicks

Fresh new kicks, and pants / You gotta like that, now you know you wanna dance

1990, “U Can't Touch This”, in Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, performed by MC Hammer:


cocker

From cock (“a male bird, especially a rooster”) and its derivative cocking (“the hunting of gamecocks”), + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (agent noun suffix).

You have your choice of two stock-mounted cocking aids: the Acudraw 50, an integral rope cocker, or the Acudraw crank-operated device.

2007, Field and Stream - Volume 112, page 62:

The down side is that they are hard to draw without special lever cockers.

2011, Ritchie R. Moorhead, The Kid Looks Back-Short Stories & Tall Tales, page 48:

The standard default cocking mechanism is the rope cocker.

2013, Todd A. Kuhn, Shooter's Bible Guide to Bowhunting:

A device that aids in cocking a crossbow.


cocker

From Middle English coker (“a quiver, boot”) from Old English cocer (“quiver, case”) from Proto-West Germanic *kukur (“container, case”), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”). More at quiver.


cocker

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English cokeren (“to pamper, coddle”); compare Welsh cocru (“to indulge, fondle”), French coqueliner (“to dandle, to imitate the crow of a cock, to run after the girls”), and English cockle and cock (“rooster; to spoil”).

cog

I been to see 'im. Not pretty. Ward sister tell me 'e'll be alright but not for a while yet. Concussion. Bloody 'ell! Lucky 'e wasn't killed, lump of lead like that. Lucky for you too, cocker...

He said, 'Not my cup of Darjeeling, cocker. I've been more intellectually challenged at a kiddies' swimming gala.'

2004, Sue Townsend, Adrian Mole and The Weapons of Mass Destruction, →ISBN, page 361:


cocker

en-verb

cocker (third-person singular simple present cockers, present participle cockering, simple past and past participle cockered)

cockers (present singular third-person)
cockering (participle present)
cockered (participle past)
cockered (past)

[…] shall a beardless boy,
A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […]?

c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, act V, scene 1:

Cocker thy childe, and hee ſhall make thee afraid: play with him and he will bring thee to heauinesse.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiasticus 30:9:

But if you was to ask your ma, she would tell you that poor folks can no ways afford to cocker themselves up as lying-in ladies do.

1879, Jean Ingelow, chapter 1, in Sarah De Berenger, Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 6:

To make a nestle-cock of; to indulge or pamper (particularly of children).


blucher

Named from Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742–1819), a Prussian general.

(historical) A form of horse-drawn carriage; a Blucher coach.


discalced

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin discalceātus (“barefoot”) + -ed, rendering French déchaussé. By surface analysis, dis- + calced.

bor

They were discalced to a man like pilgrims of some common order for all their shoes were long since stolen.

2006, Cormac McCarthy, The Road, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 24:

(formal, more generally) Shoeless; without shoes on; barefoot, or wearing sandals rather than shoes.


runners

(Canadian Prairies, British Columbia, Australia, Ireland) running shoes, sneakers, trainers


studs

He wore his studs to play soccer.

A pair of shoes or boots which have studs on the bottom to aid grip.

nappulakengät

shoes with studs on the bottom to aid grip

cleats

Shoes with studs on the bottom to aid grip


unshod

Inherited from Middle English unshod, unschod from Old English unsċōd, equivalent to un- + shod.

He ran unshod across the yard and down the street.


buskin

Apparently from Old French bousequin, variant of brousequin (compare modern French brodequin), probably from Middle Dutch broseken, of unknown origin.

(Catholicism) A pontifical vestment in the form of a silk stocking, sometimes embroidered or interwoven with gold thread, reaching to the base of the knee and worn over one’s regular socks but under episcopal sandals.

One thing we do know about the staging of Greek plays is that the tragic actors wore buskins on their feet that elevated them several inches above the ground. (They also wore masks.) But the members of the chorus did not wear buskins, though the sometimes wore masks. The comparison between the size of the tragic protagonists, on the one hand, and the members of the chorus, on the other hand, was thus highly significant.

1972, Mortimer J. Adler with Charles Van Doren, chapter 15, in How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, Touchstone September 2014 edition, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, pages 221–222:

(historical) A type of soft calf- or knee-high boot that laces up the front, sometimes featuring open toes or thick soles, worn in the Greco-Roman world by hunters and horsemen, as well as by actors in Athenian tragedy.

toneellaars

type of boot with a thick sole, worn by the ancient Athenian tragic actors

An instrument of torture for the foot; bootikin.


gumboot

en-noun

gumboot (countable and uncountable, plural gumboots)


huarache

From Mexican Spanish huarache, guarache, from Purepecha kwarachi (“sandal”).

My shoes, damn fool that I am, were Mexican huaraches, plantlike sieves not fit for the rainy night of America and the raw road night.

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 2, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 1:


Cuban heel

A relatively low-style of high heel shoes, characterised by a slightly tapered back and a straight front


zori

He ran back and I watched him go, legs pumping, soles of his zori showing.

(especially Southeast US) A sandal, usually of rubber, secured to the foot by two straps mounted between the big toe and its neighbour.


roller skate

en-verb

roller skate (third-person singular simple present roller skates, present participle roller skating, simple past and past participle roller skated)

roller skates (present singular third-person)
roller skating (participle present)
roller skated (participle past)
roller skated (past)

A fragrance drifts by, and a memory is evoked. My feet have not forgotten how to roller-skate, and my hands remember skills that I was hardly aware I had learned.

1982 March 18, w:Eric J. Cassel[l], “The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 306, number 11, →DOI, page 642:


in-line skate

A rollerblade: a roller skate with all wheels aligned in a single row along the sole for greater speed and maneuverability.


galosh

From Middle English galoche, from Old French galoche (“shoe with a wooden sole”), but further history is uncertain.
further theories
* From Vulgar Latin *galopium or Late Latin calopedia (“a wooden shoe; a shoe with a wooden sole”), from Ancient Greek κᾱλοπόδιον (kālopódion), diminutive of κᾱλόπους (kālópous, “shoemaker's block”), compound of κᾶλον (kâlon, “wood”) and πούς (poús, “foot”). (More at holt and foot.)
* From Late Latin gallicula, diminutive of Latin gallica (solea) (“Gallic (sandal)”).
* From Old French galette (“flat round cake”), from galet (“pebble”).

der

An overshoe or boot worn in wet weather:

(British) A waterproof overshoe used to provide protection from rain or snow.

galloshe

(US) A waterproof rubber boot, intended to be worn in wet or muddy conditions.

A gaiter, or legging, covering the upper part of the shoe and part of the leg.


thigh-high

My bureau drawers were knotted with nylon stockings and "thigh hi's," my closet was cluttered with little pointed shoes.

1987 April 11, Pamela Wescott, “Judy Grahn: Pursuing the Work We Want”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

Every once in a while a girl has to stop brooding over gender injustice, start thinking about sexual revenge, and slip into her thigh-highs and stiletto heels to lure a few dopes to destruction.

1994 November 14, Richard Schickel, “Wretch on a Sexual Rampage”, in Time:

The resulting outfit: a cape, a breath-stealing corset, and a sheer black skirt atop a black vinyl thong and fishnet thigh-highs.

1999, Jennifer Wolff, “Vamping with Vampires”, in Cosmopolitan, Jan 99:

One of them wore a microskirt, and he could see the tops of black or navy thigh-highs as he stopped to pick them up.

1999, James Patterson, Pop Goes the Weasel, Headline, →ISBN:


snowboot

A water-resistant type of footwear with extra insulation or lining.


skimmer

Classic, box-pleated skimmers and pantdresses stay crisp and fresh, won't wrinkle or wilt!

1969, The New York Times Magazine (part 3)

The utilization of divided dart control—some stitched and some unstitched—is the basis of semifitted styles such as the shift or skimmer dress.

2006, Adele P. Margolis, Judy Skoogfors, Make Your Own Dress Patterns, page 73:

Slightly A-line, princess-cut “skimmers” were popular as dresses in summer and jumpers in winter.

2009, Phyllis G. Tortora, Keith Eubank, Survey of Historic Costume, page 572:

A loose-fitting one-piece dress, similar to a shift but with slightly more fitting.


insole

The inside sole of a shoe or other footwear.


insole

en-verb

insole (third-person singular simple present insoles, present participle insoling, simple past and past participle insoled)

insoles (present singular third-person)
insoling (participle present)
insoled (participle past)
insoled (past)

(transitive) To fit (footwear) with an insole.


hobnail

The Conversation (website)
William Shakespeare

From hob + nail. The oldest attestation is in William Shakespeare, but he likely did not coin the term.

Next, the word Politician is not us'd to his maw, and therupon he plays the most notorious hobbihors, jesting and frisking in the luxury of his non-sense with such poor fetches to cog a laughter from us, that no antic hobnaile at a Morris, but is more hansomly facetious.

1645 March 14 (Gregorian calendar), J[ohn] M[ilton], Colasterion: A Reply to a Nameles Answer against The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. […], [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC:

There lay Tom; hobnail Tom! a bacon-munching, reckless, beer-swilling animal! and yet a man …

1859, George Meredith, chapter 9, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:


hobnail

hobnail (third-person singular simple present hobnails, present participle hobnailing, simple past and past participle hobnailed)

hobnails (present singular third-person)
hobnailing (participle present)
hobnailed (participle past)
hobnailed (past)

Your rights and charters hobnailed into slush.

(transitive, archaic) To tread down roughly, as with hobnailed shoes.


stepper

Although Martha Haskins never won a prize at a dance, she was proud of having been “a purty good stepper."

2009, William Dusinberre, Strategies for Survival, page 170:

A Motion Picture Classic writer who witnessed the Reids at the Sunset Inn wrote, “Wally is some stepper. Let me tell you the boy can dance."

2010, E.J. Fleming, Wallace Reid: The Life and Death of a Hollywood Idol, page 155:

Should there be a fey fiddler secreted among the musicians, or a seelie stepper on the dance floor, then the final tune of the evening could end with you dancing off with them, never to return.

2012, Reginald Bakeley, Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop, page 104:

Shall I call your vader then? He's a most accomplished stepper. He can show you how to dance.

2014, Candace McCarthy, Rapture's Betrayal:

He was a fancy stepper, and no doubt he figured that a good jig dance would improve his chances with Sis Hartnett.

2015, J Washburn, Line Rider: An Arizona Ranger's True Story of Indians:


stiletto

en-noun

stiletto (plural stilettos or stilettoes or stiletti)

stilettos (plural)
stilettoes (plural)
stiletti (plural)

Borrowed from Italian stiletto. Doublet of stylet.


calk

A pointed projection on a horseshoe to prevent its slipping.

gryf

a pointed projection on a horseshoe to prevent it slipping


pantoffle

Ile tell you Lady,
 Since you riſe up his Advocate, and boldly,
 (For now I finde, and plainly, in whoſe favour
 My love and ſervice to you was neglected)
 For all your wealth, nay, adde to that your beauty,
 And put your vertues in if you have any,
 I would not yet be pointed at, as he is,
 For the fine Courtier, the womans man,
 That tells my Lady ſtories, diſſolves riddles,
 Uſhers her to her Coach, lyes at her feet
 At ſollemne Maskes, applauding what ſhe laughs at;
 Reads her aſleep a nights, and takes his oath
 Upon her Pantoffles, that all excellence
 In other Madams doe but zany hers:
 Theſe you are perfect in, and yet theſe take not
 Or from your birth or freedome.

1616–1618, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Queene of Corinth”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 4, column 1:


start-up

start-up (countable and uncountable, plural start-ups)


ski boot

Specialized footwear used in skiing to provide a way to attach the skier to skis using ski bindings.


screw shoe

A regular shoe with screws (1/4 to 3/8 inch) screwed into the bottom to give it grip while running on ice and snow.


shoeshine

The shiny finish on shoes that have been polished.

kiilto

the shiny finish on shoes that have been polished


bootblack

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bootblack.wav

The young negro bootblack hummed "The Camp Meeting Blues" and polished in rhythm to his tune, drawing the shiny shoe-rag so taut at each stroke that it snapped like a banjo string.

1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 24, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC:

(dated) A shoeshine boy; a person who shines shoes as an occupation.


brogan

An alteration of brogue. Most dictionaries give the source as Irish *brógán (from bróg (“shoe”) + -án (diminutive suffix)) or its Scottish Gaelic equivalent, but no such word can be confirmed to exist in either language (apart from the given name Brógán, the source of the surname Brogan).

The wind gusted through, shivering me, so that my waterlogged brogans were like ice against my feet.

2019, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer, Penguin Books (2020), page 65:


babouche

From French babouche, from Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš), from Persian پاپوش (pâpuš, “slipper”).

der

Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš)

BABOUCHE, S. F. (soulier des Turcs, & autres peuples orientaux,) a Shoe worn by the Turks, and other Oriental Nations.

1729, Abel Boyer, The Royal Dictionary, French and English, and English and French Extracted from the Writings of the Best Authors in Both Languages, London: J. and J. Knapton:

Everything that the reader of the Arabian Nights expects to find is here: […] the tunnelled passages where indolent merchants with bare feet crouch in their little kennels hung with richly ornamented saddlery and arms, or with slippers of pale citron leather and bright embroidered babouches; […]

A Turkish or Moroccan slipper having no heel.


patten

From Middle English patyn, patin, pateyn, from Old French patin, from patte (“paw, hoof”), from Latin patta, of imitative origin.

onomatopoeic

imitative


rollerblade

From Rollerblade, a trademark for a brand of inline skates, from roller + blade.

A roller skate with all wheels aligned in a single row along the sole, resembling an ice skate.


rollerblade

en-verb

rollerblade (third-person singular simple present rollerblades, present participle rollerblading, simple past and past participle rollerbladed)

rollerblades (present singular third-person)
rollerblading (participle present)
rollerbladed (participle past)
rollerbladed (past)

(transitive, intransitive) To roller skate using rollerblades.


outsole

The underside of a shoe or other footwear, which makes contact with the floor.


steel-toe boot

A type of boot with a steel-reinforced toe area that protects the foot from falling objects.


clown shoe

Sorry, clown shoe. I'm not going to click any tinyurl link that you provide […]

2006 February 15, Jason Bell, “The Muhammed Cartoons”, in rec.sport.basketball.college (Usenet), message-ID <8AOIf.13460$915.7816@southeast.rr.com>:

What a fucking clown shoe you are, Billy. Ya got nothing.

2007 April 23, “Gonzo goes down in flames”, in alt.impeach.bush (Usenet), message-ID <1177345606.310210.218960@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>:

You have no "professional reputation," you fucking clown shoe.

2015 March 15, “Rand Paul’s claim — twice in one day — that he has a biology degree..”, in alt.fan.rush-limbaugh (Usenet), message-ID <8adac9fe-43e7-458e-8de6-e48eb8218c9c@googlegroups.com>:

(derogatory) An incompetent or foolish person.


balmoral

From Balmoral Castle, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.


toecap

A piece of leather or other material on a shoe or boot that covers the toes.

(especially) a piece of hard steel or leather on a shoe or boot for protection of the toes.

bigotera

part of an item of footwear that protects the toes


high-heeled

For instance, impressions in the earth, of a certain size, shape, and pattern, would normally be sufficient evidence for a confident belief that a woman had walked over the ground wearing high-heeled shoes.

1987, Robert Merrihew Adams, “Berkeley and Epistemology”, in Ernest Sosa, editor, Essays on the Philosophy of George Berkeley, page 145:

I preferred to think about school and a government job and how I would one day put on high-heeled shoes and wear a long skirt like other girls.

2011, Elizabeth Ngozi Okpalaenwe, The Power to Succeed, page 7:

They wore designer clothes, white, tight, hip-huggers, and low neck blouses, high-heeled shoes, especially in the winters when they wore those sexy high-heeled boots, and tight jeans.

2011, Mickey Demos, Life in Mani Today: The Road to Freedom, page 229:

High-heeled shoes are not typically constructed to accommodate the average male's heft, foot size, or gait. All high-heeled shoes, particularly extremely thin “stiletto” heels, require technical acumen in their design because the structure of the shoe focuses immense pressure on a small area; a petite woman in stilettos can exert 20 times the pressure of a 6,000 pound elephant under her heel.

2015, Eve Shapiro, Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age, page 55:


cothurnus

Learned borrowing from Latin cothurnus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek κόθορνος (kóthornos).


shoe tree

A device approximating the shape of a foot that is placed inside a shoe when it is being stored to preserve its shape and extend the life of the shoe.


hipper

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hipper.wav


uppers

His shoes were so worn that he was walking on his uppers.

The parts of a pair of shoes that do not normally contact the ground.


shoeless

From Middle English sholes, scholes, equivalent to shoe + -less. Compare Dutch schoenloos (“shoeless”), German schuhlos (“shoeless”), Old Norse skólaus (“shoeless”).

He ran shoeless from the burning house.

The ground about was thick sown with caltrops, which very much incommoded the shoeless Moors.

c. 1681, Lancelot Addison, The Moores baffled: being a discourse concerning Tanger:


bottine

From French bottine. See boot (“type of footwear”).

An appliance resembling a small boot furnished with straps, buckles, etc., used to correct or prevent distortions in the lower extremities of children.


sneakerhead

From sneaker + -head. The birth of sneakerhead culture came in the late 1980s and can be attributed to two major sources: basketball and hip hop music.

That culture waned in the late 80's and the 90's —remember Jerry Seinfeld in his clunky, generic white sneakers— but now the sneakerhead is back.

2004 July 11, Richard A. Martin, “The Rebirth of the New York Sneakerhead”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The rise of sneakerheads, as aficionados of artistically enhanced footwear call themselves, has had a contagious impact on shoe companies.

2006 March 23, Eric Wilson, “Sneakerhead Bonanza”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr. Luber, who, like many sneakerheads, speaks of his footwear collection as if it were an ever-expanding portfolio, started collecting at age 10.

2018 July 6, Dan Hyman, “A Nasdaq for Sneakerheads? StockX Aims to Tame ‘Chaos’ of Luxury Market”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(slang) A person who owns multiple pairs of shoes as a form of collection and fashion.


crepida

Learned borrowing from Latin crepida, from Ancient Greek κρηπίς (krēpís). Doublet of crepis.

There was likewise found an abundant variety of shoes; the heavy caliga, or sandal, worn by the Roman soldiers, studded under the sole with large-headed nails, the calceus or buskin (3) and the more delicate crepida (4), or slipper looped in the leather on each side of the instep, in like manner with the buskin.

1854, “Ancient London.—No. IX.”, in The Home Friend; A Weekly Miscellany of Amusement and Instruction, volume IV, number 91, London: […] Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge […], pages 300–301:

The museum, though small, contains some very interesting objects classified in groups. In one case are Roman and other shoes, sandals, and crepidæ; […]

1866 July 20, “The Annual Congress of the Archæological Institute”, in The Building News and Engineering Journal: […], volume XIII, London: […] Proprietor of the “Building News,” [John Passmore Edwards] […], page 484, column 3:

The sole of the crepida was usually thick and leather covered the sides and heel of the foot. The crepida, considered the shoe for traveler, young man and warrior, varied in style for civilian and soldier.

1948, R[uth] Turner Wilcox, “Roman Footwear”, in The Mode in Footwear, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: Charles Scribner’s Sons, Ltd, page 31:

What restlessness could have made the goddess trample the earth so fast under the crepidae twisted up on her legs like the sandals of our Romanian frontier guards.

1984, Romanian Review, volume 38, page 74:

Crepidae often covered the foot up to or including the ankle, and they sometimes covered the toes, not a regular feature of the sandal. An excellent example of crepidae with high layered, multicolored soles is depicted in the room of the initiation in the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii, as worn by Ariadne.

1994 December, Norma Goldman, “Roman Footwear”, in Judith Lynn Sebesta, Larissa Bonfante, editors, The World of Roman Costume (Wisconsin Studies in Classics), Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, published 2001, →ISBN, part I (Roman Garments, Hairstyles, Accessories), page 114, column 1:

He had even been known to go out and about dressed in ancient Macedonian style to mimic his hero – the flat kausia hat and the crepidae shoes.

2019, Alex Gough, Emperor’s Knife (The Imperial Assassin; 2), London: Canelo, published 2022, →ISBN:

(Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome) A type of footwear consisting of a sole attached to the foot with fairly elaborate straps, distinguished by the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans from sandals proper but now usually considered a style of sandal.


footplate

The part of a roller skate that attaches to the boot.


daisy roots

Derives from a simile between daisies (the roots of which are hard to eradicate) and boots which are hard to take off.
It is referred to in the traditional song "My Old Man's a Dustman" recorded by Lonnie Donegan during the 1950s: "he's got such a job to pull them off that 'e calls them daisy roots".

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang

(Cockney rhyming slang) Boots or other footwear


boot knife

A knife, usually with a fixed double-edged blade, that is carried inside a sheath or attached to a boot.


pantofle

From Middle English pantuflis pl, pantuiffillis pl, from Middle French pantoufle (“slipper”), of uncertain origin.

And although ſhe threatned to breake his bowe and arrowes, to clip his wings, and whipped him beſides on the bare buttocks with her pantophle, yet all would not ſerue,[…].

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Heroicall loue causing melancholy. His Pedegree, Power, and Extent.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 1, subsection 1, page 356:


hobnail boot

A heavy-duty, hard-wearing work boot with hobnails in the sole to make them last longer and to provide grip on muddy ground.


moon boot

A type of footwear made popular in the 1970s, with a thin rubber outsole and no distinct left or right feet.


bobby socks

en-noun

bobby socks pl (normally plural, singular bobby sock)


overstocking

I made a hurried attempt to change my thick fur “torbassa” and overstockings for American boots, but was surprised in the very act by the drawing up of my sledge before the house of the Russian priest, where we intended to stop until we could make arrangements for a house of our own.[…]As soon as I could disencumber my feet of my overstockings I alighted from my sledge, amid profound bows and “zdrastvuitias” from the crowd, and received a hearty welcome from the patriarchal priest.

1870, George Kennan, “Penzhina—Telegraph Poles—Arctic Temperature—Studying Astronomy—Arrival at Anadyrsk—A Priest’s Hospitality”, in Tent Life in Siberia, and Adventures among the Koraks and Other Tribes in Kamtchatka and Northern Asia, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam & Sons, […]; London: S. Low, Son & Marston, page 281:

Michael laughed and offered fifty dollars for the sweater, the overstockings and the muffler. Just as the second sleeve was being finished and before Mrs. Andy Ned had started the overstockings or the muffler, Andy Ned went away up to the Black Hat Creek range to look for the five steers that he had turned out there the previous autumn.

1967, Bruce Hutchison, Western Windows, Toronto, Ont.: Longmans Canada Limited, page 68:

Boot hose, made of a thicker material such as linen, popular until the 1680s, were a kind of overstocking worn to protect the thinner stockings.[…]Stirrup hose worn throughout the century, were used as protection when horse riding and were similar to long overstockings without soles, but with a strap beneath to hold them down.

1977, Marion Sichel, Costume Reference 3: Jacobean, Stuart, and Restoration, →ISBN, page 17:

As white understockings, which may easily have been completely hidden, also occur, it is possible that the well-dressed man often wore three pairs of stockings. Roelof de Man — always a standard of elegance in Cape terms — had twelve pairs of white understockings and fourteen pairs of overstockings, including examples in green Naples silk, pearl-coloured English silk, ash-grey wool (sajet), black English silk, red serge, and white linen. While Ensign [Pieter] Evriard runs him a close second with five pairs of white understockings and thirteen pairs of overstockings in a rather similar range of colours and materials.

1982, Africana Notes and News, volume 25, page 163:

He [Jeremias van Rensselaer] may have worn understockings to protect the outer pair from sweat and foot odors; in the 1650s, overstockings or ‘canons,’ which were widened and decorated at the top, better fitted the wider boots worn by men at this time. Overstockings replaced the large, colorful, and eye-catching garters (kousebanden) that had previously been very popular, and which protected the expensive stockings from the rough boot.

2003, Janny Venema, “The Van Rensselaers as commercial entrepreneurs”, in Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652–1664, Hilversum: Verloren; Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, section “Place in the community; Life style”, subsection “Outer appearance: Clothing”, page 215:

A stocking intended to be worn over another stocking.


poulaine

From Anglo-Norman poleine (“(shoe with a) pointed toe”) and Middle French poulaine (“(shoe with a) pointed toe”), apparently from Old French poulain (“Polish”) (compare crackow), the style being supposed to be Polish. Possibly related to poleyn (“knee armor”).

bor

A long, pointed toe of a shoe, a style fashionable in the 14th and 15th centuries.


sandshoe

He was clad in a shabby khaki-drill suit and grubby panama and sandshoes, and wore neither socks nor shirt, and was unshaven.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter III, in Capricornia, page 36:

1986, Pete Thomas, The Coalminers of Queensland, Volume I: Creating the Traditions, Queensland Colliery Employees Union, page 325,
Later, however, the union ran into a problem of a severe shortage of sandshoes in Queensland. The rationing authorities, in reply to a union request on this, said that the Chief Inspector of Coalmines had condemned use of sandshoes in mines as being “not conducive to health or safety.”

2003, Peter Plowman, Across the Sea to War: Australian and New Zealand Troop Convoys from 1865 through two World Wars to Lorea and Vietnam, Rosenberg Publishing, Australia, page 387,
Sandshoes had been issued for shipboard use, to avoid damage to the decks by hob-nailed boots.

2007, Melissa Harper, The Ways of the Bushwalker: On Foot in Australia, UNSW Press, page 272,
The sandshoe versus the boot; this is an issue that has stirred the blood of bushwalkers for more than fifty years. […] The demise of the ubiquitous hob-nailed boot (circa 1950s) in favour of a boot with a patterned rubber sole generated concern, but the popularity of a boot that combined a rubber sole and a canvas upper with no ankle support simply went too far for some.

But because yer sandshoes, if they were dirty, it was a point off yer team, so ye were just to try yer hardest.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 81:

(Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Northern England) A sports or walking shoe with canvas upper and rubber sole; a sneaker.


laceless

1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.

(of shoes, basketballs, etc.) Without laces.


Oxford shoe

A type of leather shoe with lacing seamlessly integrated into the vamp, giving it a formal appearance.


tube sock

A one-size-fits-all sock, having a plain tubular shape rather than one designed to match the contours of the foot.


slingback

A type of women's shoe having a strap behind the heel or ankle


slippered

Her slippered feet padded across the carpet.

139, the vacuum-fitted Wee Bogie, was transferred to Girvan after a time, and The Mool got her—Will Eaglesome that went to the Argentine—so you may guess 139 didn't lead a life of slippered ease.

1941 January, David L. Smith, “Still More G. & S.W. Night's Entertainment”, in Railway Magazine, page 18:


saddle shoe

Shortly after the outbreak of war I wrote to the English Friends about clothing and raised the question as to whether we should send you "saddle shoes." It seems I gave you busy people no end of trouble trying to discover what a saddle shoe is . . . It is originally white and has a brown or black saddle-shaped piece of leather across the instep. The American adolescent is properly shod for all except dress occasions in saddle shoes, but not clean ones! These shoes, for reasons that only a teen-ager can explain, must never be cleaned!

1936, Friends' Intelligencer, volume 100, Philadelphia, Pa.: Wm. W. Moore, →OCLC, page 109, column 2:

Best has quantities of the Arnold type of buckled sports shoes, as well as the saddle shoes that have been popular on campuses for many years; lots of felt hats of the Dunlap type, varied by odd crowns; and round-crowned hats with bound brims—Stetson classics.

1936, The New Yorker, volume 12, New York, N.Y.: New Yorker Magazine, Inc., →OCLC, page 37:

Saddle shoes were first manufactured by Spalding in 1906 as an accessory for tennis and squash. The saddle was not initially conceived of with style in mind; it functioned as an orthopedic girdle that reinforced the instep and held the shoe together against the strain of fast starts and jolting steps. […] Saddle shoes finally caught on in the 1920s as a result of Spalding's decision to outfit the bottom with spikes and go after the golf market.

1994, Frank W. Hoffmann; William G. Bailey, “Saddle Shoes”, in Fashion & Merchandising Fads (Haworth Popular Culture), Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Press, ISBN 978-1-56023-031-1; republished New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-1-317-95292-3, page 212

A shoe, resembling an oxford, which has a saddle of a leather or colour different from the rest of the shoe.


running shoe

For example, if some people are wearing their joggers as fashion statement rather than as injury preventers, then perhaps their plan to buy expensive running shoes is actually sound.

2016, Ray Wyatt, Plan Prediction: Which Policy is Preferred by Which People?, page 69:

(Canada, US, Australia) Sneaker, not cleats; tennis shoes; normal gym shoes.


zoomer

→ Russian: зу́мер (zúmer)

Portmanteau from Generation Z and boomer (“baby boomer, a person born between 1945 and early 1960s”). Merriam-Webster identified the earliest use in its current sense as being made on 16 March 2016 by an aviation engineer named Jennie Santoro at HNTB Seattle, in a presentation called "Boomers to Zoomers: Passing the Torch to Generation Z!"
However, the word was ultimately popularized through a variant of the Wojak meme which originated on 4chan on July 21st, 2018, and from there spread to other platforms. Accordingly, Urban Dictionary view statistics suggest that it began gaining traction in mid-2018 before peaking in January 2020.

Coordinate term: millennial

Hug a Boomer/Xer/Millennial/Zoomer In case you missed it: Gen Z is mad at boomers for the state of the world; boomers are mad at Gen Z for being so dismissive; Gen X feels forgotten and yet resents even themselves; […]

2019 December 27, Anya Strzemien, “13 Ways to Be a Better Person in 2020”, in New York Times:


shitkicker

/ˈʃɪtˌkɪkə(ɹ)/

(US, slang, vulgar, offensive) A poor, rural person, especially from the southern United States.


down at heel

en-adj

down at heel (comparative more down at heel, superlative most down at heel)

more down at heel (comparative)
most down at heel (superlative)

A pair of Oxford-mixture trousers […] fell in a series of not the most graceful folds over a pair of shoes sufficiently down at heel to display a pair of very soiled white stockings.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 41, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

(literally, of footwear) In poor condition, especially due to having worn heels; worn-out, shabby.

He was a queer shoot, again, in his unkempt longish hair and slovenly clothes, a sort of very vulgar down-at-heel American in appearance.

1916, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “John”, in Twilight in Italy, London: Duckworth and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 211–212:

For the likes of her, the down-at-heels support of Hoboken pier was plenty good enough.

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1:

Last year, he was down at heel, homeless and had an erratic relationship with his family.

2003, Lynda Lee-Potter, "Sex-crazed fans . . .," Daily Mail (UK), 27 Dec. (retrieved 20 Jan. 2010)

A down-at-the-heels advertising copywriter when he hit on the idea, he originally meant it as a joke.

2015 March 31, Margalit Fox, “Gary Dahl, Inventor of the Pet Rock, Dies at 78”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Researchers analysed 500 interviews with people in right-wing strongholds in France and Germany, places such as Gelsenkirchen-Ost, a down-at-heel suburb north-east of Essen blighted with high levels of unemployment and where anti-immigrant party Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) garnered nearly a third of the vote in the 2017 elections […]

2020, Noreena Hertz, The Lonely Century, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:

(idiomatic, by extension) Shabbily dressed, slovenly; impoverished; shabby, dilapidated.


street shoes

Ordinary shoes worn during everyday life, in contrast to those worn for some special occasion such as an athletic activity.

Alltagsschuhe

ordinary shoes worn during everyday life

Shoes worn outdoors, in contrast to houseshoes worn indoors.


bedsock

A sock worn in bed, to keep the feet warm.


Brannock device

en-noun

Brannock device (plural Brannock devices)

Named after its inventor, Charles F. Brannock.

A hand tool of a particular kind, used to measure a foot's length, heel-to-ball length, and width.


toe sock

A type of sock where each toe is separately encased, like fingers in a glove.


toe shoe

(ballet) A ballet shoe worn for pointework.


boat shoe

A type of casual footwear resembling a loafer, originally designed to be worn aboard a boat, characterized by water-resistant hide, soles designed to improve hold on wet deck of the boat and side lacing.


topsider

15 other women got together and we all wore the dyke outfit of the sixties, which was topsiders or weejun loafers, cordoroy ^([sic]) pants, oxford cloth shirts, either a seersucker or a madras jacket, a pinky ring and a Dunhill lighter. And we all wore a skirt over our heads, sort of like a nun thing.

1980 April 19, Cindy Rizzo, Maxine Feldman, “Give Me That Ol' Lesbianism!”, in Gay Community News, page 8:


calceiform

en-adj

calceiform (comparative more calceiform, superlative most calceiform)

more calceiform (comparative)
most calceiform (superlative)

From Latin calceus (“calceus, footwear”) + English -form (“-shaped”) after the model of French calcéiforme.

(chiefly botany) Shoe-shaped, shaped like a shoe.


platform shoe

A type of footwear with very thick soles and heels to make the wearer appear taller.


court shoe

A shoe with no fastening and a low-cut front, worn by men with formal dress such as court dress or white tie, but now usually by women.


pop sock

After her show, designer Miuccia Prada blamed the accidents on the pop socks worn by the models inside their platform sandals, making them impossible to grip.

2008 September 28, Charlie Porter, “Heels prove too tall an order for Milan models”, in The Observer:

(chiefly UK) A type of short, knee-high stocking with an elasticated top.


combat boot

A type of boot designed to be worn by soldiers during actual combat or combat training


talaria

From Latin tālāria, plural form of tālāris (“of or pertaining to the ankle or heel”), from tālus (“anklebone, talus; heel”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).

refn

From the collection of the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, California, USA.

der

Byres has drawn these figures with wings at their ankles, sometimes fastened to the leg, and sometimes like those at their shoulders, growing from the flesh—in both which ways the talaria of Mercury and Perseus are represented on ancient monuments. Nothing of this sort could I perceive; it was manifest to me that these were not talaria, but simple buskins with peaked flaps, such as are commonly depicted on vases of the archaic Greek style, and on the legs of Roman Lares in the paintings of Pompeii.

1848, George Dennis, “Bieda.—Blera.”, in The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, footnote 10, page 319:

From the Graiæ the literary myths make him [Perseus] go to the Nymphs, the artistic ones to the Naiads or nymphs of the lake Tritonis, from which he receives the helmet of Hades, the kibisis or wallet, and the talaria or winged sandals. [...] Other versions made him receive the helmet and talaria from Hermes. On the early monuments the helmet of Hades is like the petasus of Hermes, and the sandals are winged, but in many other works of art, such as mirrors or gems, the talaria are represented as wings, which he attaches to his feet.

1854 May 25, Samuel Birch, “V. On a Vase Representing an Adventure of Perseus.”, in Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, London: Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London; printed by J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […], published 1855, →OCLC, page 56:

With his horizon all his own, yet he a poor man, born to be poor, with his inherited Irish poverty or poor life, his Adam's grandmother and boggy ways, not to rise in this world, he nor his posterity, till their wading webbed bog-trotting feet get talaria to their heels.

1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Baker Farm”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 225:

It was the god Hermes, he who conducted souls to the Elysian fields, the slender, agile, elegant figure, beautiful in its sinuous motion, with the petasus on his head and the winged talaria on his ankles, that I beheld floating over me.

1867 May, W. W. S., “A Modern Magician”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CI, number DCXIX, Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 566:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The winged sandals worn by certain gods and goddesses, especially the Roman god Mercury (and his Greek counterpart Hermes).


CTCP

(footwear) Initialism of composite toe and composite plate.


bebooted

There were the long-haired, bebooted mini[-]marrieds, some suits, Dr. Zhivago velvets, raccoon coats, and silly millimeter longer scarves and bookbags, not to mention vests, Mademoiselle magazine, cords and twisted buns topping sensible sweaters and glasses.

1968 February 4, Phyllis Dreazen, “Anatomy of a turned on time”, in Chicago Tribune, 121st year, number 35, Chicago, Ill., section 1A, page 4:

“I’ve danced all my life, but this is the greatest,” said the bebooted Arnaud, who turns her red head to watch Deason as she calls intricate foot moves, “Quick, quick, slow,” from her cordless microphone.

1992 November 12, Susie Spear, “Fancy Footwork”, in The Clarion-Ledger, volume 155, number 268, Jackson, Miss., page 9F, columns 1–2:

“No way this one’s going to miss us this time,” burbles one bebooted doomsdayer to another.

1995 December 21, Tony Chamberlain, “We all love snow games: Some take time to play; others seize chance to panic”, in The Boston Globe, volume 248, number 174, Boston, Mass., page 91:


calceate

From Latin calceātus, participle of calceāre (“to shoe, to provide with shoes”), from calceus (“calceus, shoe”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), from calx (“heel”) + -eus (“-y”, adjective-forming suffix). Equivalent to Latin calceus + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

af

(rare) Synonym of shod: wearing shoes, particularly (Christianity) as opposed to the barefoot mendicant orders.


crackow

Named after Cracow in Poland, where they were first worn in the 14th century.


caliga

If you were a soldier and walked with full gear up to 25 miles a day, you'd appreciate the sturdiness and coolness of the Caligae. And unlike modern military boots, these Caligae were specifically designed to reduce the likelihood of blisters forming during these forced marches.

2018 July 30, Billy Crone, The Satanic War on the Christian, volume 4, Lulu.com, page 118:

(historical) A heavy ancient Roman military sandal.


lace up

en-verb

lace up (third-person singular simple present laces up, present participle lacing up, simple past and past participle laced up)

laces up (present singular third-person)
lacing up (participle present)
laced up (participle past)
laced up (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-lace up.wav

If the film arrived with minute to go, there would still be time for the technicians to lace it up […]

2015, David Lloyd, Start the Clock and Cue the Band: A Life in Television:

'Well,' said Ron, 'let's lace it up on the projector anyway, we might see something.'

2016, Nicholas Lee, All This in 60 Minutes, page 26:

(transitive) To insert (film) into a projector.


chancleta

From Spanish chancleta (“slipper; (slang) girl”).

bor

My friend has a gay uncle and on the puerto rican^([sic]) day parade he puts on these tight shorts with a puerto rican shirt which he ties at the bottom and bandana and wears chancletas and dances to gloria^([sic]) Estefan he also does this at my friends^([sic]) parties.

2002, Chris Ceraso, The Teen Acting Ensemble:

Carmela tucked her leg and with her foot pushed the chancleta closer to her hand, she reached down without effort and in one fluid movement she grabbed la chancleta, sat up, and threw the chancleta across the living room and into the hallway, where it made contact with Elenita's right temple.

2012, Kali Amanda Browne, Remembrance of Dingbats:

When I head back home to Florida, you bet your ass I’m hitting the beach in my chancletas, Boricua beach bag and yelling “Cabron”^([sic]) out the window of my car at slow drivers.

2013, Julitza Gerena, Through the Eyez of a Drag Hag:

For those of us who primarily wear sandals, or chancletas, everywhere, Publix is selling a pair just for us.

2019 October 18, Devoun Cetoute, “South Florida loves PubSubs. Now you can flaunt your love with Publix-themed clothes”, in Miami Herald:

(areas with many Hispanic people) A slipper or sandal without a heel, such as a flip-flop or mule.


valenki

en-noun

valenki pl (normally plural, singular valenok)

From Russian ва́ленки (válenki), singular ва́ленок (válenok).

With our feet protected from frostbite in our valenki, we were able to walk outside. The valenki came just in time, since the temperature was falling rapidly and the winter was fierce beyond normal.

1999, Hanna Davidson Pankowsky, East of the Storm: Outrunning the Holocaust in Russia:


swim fin

flipper, footwear used while swimming for more speed


footwrap

A strip of cloth worn around the feet before the wide availability of socks or to avoid chafing, absorb sweat and improve the foothold.


platform boot

A fashionable boot with very thick soles and heels to make the wearer appear taller.


bootheel

An area of land protruding south of the eastern or western end of a southern border.


oversocks

oversocks pl (normally plural, singular oversock)

Oversocks, when worn over regular hiking socks, will arm you for assaulting boot-saturating bogs, crossing streams

1995 September, “Raingear for Feet”, in Backpacker, volume 23, number 144, page 99:

Socks intended to be worn over another pair of socks.


understocking

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-understocking.wav

On the 1st of February of 1715 I received the dues of La Cañada, three bushels of wheat; eight sacks and a half of maize; some cotton-thread understockings worth 3 pesos, and two pairs of gloves;

1948, New Mexico Historical Review, page 211:

As white understockings, which may easily have been completely hidden, also occur, it is possible that the well-dressed man often wore three pairs of stockings. Roelof de Man — always a standard of elegance in Cape terms — had twelve pairs of white understockings and fourteen pairs of overstockings, including examples in green Naples silk, pearl-coloured English silk, ash-grey wool (sajet), black English silk, red serge, and white linen. While Ensign [Pieter] Evriard runs him a close second with five pairs of white understockings and thirteen pairs of overstockings in a rather similar range of colours and materials.

1982, Africana Notes and News, volume 25, page 163:

He [Jeremias van Rensselaer] may have worn understockings to protect the outer pair from sweat and foot odors; in the 1650s, overstockings or ‘canons,’ which were widened and decorated at the top, better fitted the wider boots worn by men at this time.

2003, Janny Venema, “The Van Rensselaers as commercial entrepreneurs”, in Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652–1664, Hilversum: Verloren; Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, section “Place in the community; Life style”, subsection “Outer appearance: Clothing”, page 215:

A stocking intended to be worn under another stocking.


bunny boot

(informal) A highly insulated boot used by the military in cold environments.


jump boot

Kayla's look tended to change with the seasons; at the moment it was less Goth than paramilitary, with laced jump boots.

2003, Mercedes Lackey, Rosemary Edghill, James P. Baen, Mad Maudlin:

A type of combat boot used by paratroopers assigned to parachute units, designed to be fully laced and to give extra support to the ankle.


tanker boot

A military boot worn by soldiers serving on tanks and tracked vehicles, fastened with straps instead of laces.


shoe-leather

shoe-leather (countable and uncountable, plural shoe-leathers)

Outside of patent leathers and specialties, I know of no other types of shoe leathers which are commanding replacement costs today.

1922, Boot and Shoe Recorder: The Magazine of Fashion Footwear, volume 81, Philadelphia, Pa.: King Publications (a subsidiary of Chilton Company), →OCLC, page 86:

Naturally, this aristocrat of shoe leathers costs more than ordinary leather – and, for the past two years, it has been all but unobtainable in this country.

1942 October 12, “Is there a Bagpipe Player in the Audience? [Regal Shoes advertisement]”, in LIFE, volume 13, number 15, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., →OCLC, page 136:

Notable in feminine footgear of the first two decades was the increasing number of different shoe leathers consisting of box calf, white calf, colored kids, buck and antelope.

1948, R. Turner Wilcox, “Twentieth-century Footwear”, in The Mode in Footwear, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, OCLC 1356620; republished as The Mode in Footwear: A Historical Survey with 53 Plates, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2008, ISBN 978-0-486-46761-0, page 154

Shoe Leathers. Leather used in making shoes is of two kinds – bottom, or sole, leather and upper leather.

1952, F. P. Veitch, R. W. Frey, H. P. Holman, Leather Shoes: Selection and Care (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin; 1523), rev. edition, Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 1:

British authors have long suspected and documented that vegetable-tanned leather was responsible for many of their unexplained shoe leather-positive patients.

2008, Robert L. Reitschel, Joseph F. Fowler, Alexander A. Fisher, Fisher's Contact Dermatitis, 6th edition, Hamilton, Ont.: B. C. Decker, →ISBN, page 359:

(countable and uncountable) Leather that is used to make shoes.


houseshoe

(chiefly Southern US) A slipper, moccasin, or other warm footwear not appropriate for outdoor use.


shoepac

Borrowed from Unami chipakw/chipàkw (“shoe”); the spelling altered under the influence of the English words shoe and pack.

A shoe, especially a warm, waterproofed boot.


corrective shoe

A type of rigid shoe, designed to shape the wearer's foot into a regular shape.


klet

(climbing, informal) Short for kletterschuh.


Jimmy Choo

Any shoe designed by fashion designer Jimmy Choo.


oxshoe

(historical) A shoe for oxen, consisting of a flat piece of iron that is nailed to the hoof.


half-boot

A short boot, rising to anywhere from the ankle to halfway up the calf, but no higher.


gamashes

(Scotland) Short spatterdashes or riding trousers, worn over the other clothing.


shoer

From Middle English schoer, schouger (“one who shoes horses; blacksmith”), from Old English sċōere, sċōhere (“one who makes shoes; shoemaker”), equivalent to shoe + -er.

A farrier is a shoer of horses


pac

(originally) A moccasin with a sole made of leather or deerskin.


topboot

And then he walked, with his gleaming gloves either side of his greenish-black frock coat, carefully placing one foot in front of the other to protect his brilliant top boots from the dust on the road, along the straight avenue that led up to the palace of Schönbrunn.

2002, Michael Hofmann, transl., The Radetsky March, Folio Society, translation of original by Joseph Roth, published 2015, page 282:

A high boot, generally with a band of light-coloured leather around the upper part of the leg; a riding boot.


slipshoe

[S]uddenly out of his bed ſtarted an Hoſtler, who hauing no apparell on but his ſhirt, a paire of ſlip-ſhooes on his / feete, and a Candle burning in his hand like old Ieronimo ſtep'd into the ſtable amõgſt a number of poore hungry Iades, as if that night he had beene to ride poaſt to yͤ Diuell.

1609, Thomas Dekker, “Lanthorne and Candle-light. Or, The Bell-man’s Second Nights-walke. […] The Second Edition, […]: Chapter XII”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Non-dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker. […] (The Huth Library), volume III, London, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: […] [Hazell, Watson, & Viney] for private circulation only, published 1885, →OCLC, page 298:


pedary

Hovv ſome brought forth canonizations, ſome expectations, some pluralities and unions, ſome tot-quots, and diſpenſations, ſome pardons, and theſe of vvonderful variety; ſome ſtationaries, ſome jubilaries, ſome pocularies for drinkers, ſome manuaries for handlers of relicks, ſome pedaries for pilgrims, ſome oſcularies for kiſſers.

1536 June 16 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “Sermon II. Master Latimer’s Discourse on the Same Day in the Afternoon [Preached to the Convocation of the Clergy, before the Parliament Began, the Sixth Day of June, the Twenty Eighth Year of the Reign of the Late King Henry VIII].”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, page 30:


solleret

From French soleret, diminutive from Old French soler (“shoe”).

(historical) A flexible armor shoe (usually steel) made of multiple hinged plates, worn with mediaeval armour.


cothurn

From Latin cothurnus, from Ancient Greek κόθορνος (kóthornos). Compare cothurnus.

The moment had arrived when it was thought that the mask and the cothurn might again be assumed with effect.

1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

A buskin anciently worn by tragic actors on the stage.


ballet flat

She kicked off her silver ballet flats and stretched out her toes like a cat.

2007, Alex Richards, Back Talk, Flux, published 2007, →ISBN, page 188:

A type of women's flat with a very low heel, thin sole, and round toe.


calceolate

en-adj

calceolate (comparative more calceolate, superlative most calceolate)

more calceolate (comparative)
most calceolate (superlative)

From Latin calceolus (“little shoe, slipper”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), from calceus (“calceus, footwear”) + -olus (diminutive noun-forming suffix), from calx (“heel”) + -eus (adjective-forming suffix).

af

(chiefly botany) Slipper-shaped, shaped like a slipper.


bauchle

en-verb

bauchle (third-person singular simple present bauchles, present participle bauchling, simple past and past participle bauchled)

bauchles (present singular third-person)
bauchling (participle present)
bauchled (participle past)
bauchled (past)

From Scots, probably related to Old French bafouer (“to hoodwink”).

Our enemies were disputing not far off upon the deck, and that so loudly that I could hear a word or two above the washing of the seas. “It was Shuan bauchled it,” I heard one say.

1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, Kidnapped:

Maybe that shot that ye think ye bauchled was the most providential shot ye ever fired...

An echo of "bauchling" lingered on, it seemed to me, in Cumbrian rural police courts until a few years ago. Nowhere else, as a court reporter, have I heard so much abusive interruption and blasphemous invocation from the public benches during the hearing of cases. Cumbrian magistrates dealt with it most tolerantly.

1972, George MacDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets, page 152:

(Scotland) To insult, to upbraid, to make a fool of someone.


bauchle

1842, Laird of Logan, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, issue 481, page 104.
We a' ken that there's tongues in heads, but I ne'er heard o' ony in hats or bauchles afore.

(Scotland, chiefly in the plural) An old shoe.

He adds, probably his letter would be propaled and made a bauchle of, and assures them he was never loved at Court as a minister.

1843, Robert Woodrow, The life of Mister Robert Bruce, Minister at Edinburgh, page 92:

(Scotland) A bungled or muddled situation; a mess.


quad skate

A roller skate with four wheels, two either side of the foot.


roller shoe

A shoe with wheels fixed to the sole which can be extended for skating or retracted for walking.


Oxford tie

A kind of shoe, laced on the instep, and usually covering the foot nearly to the ankle.


high-top

When not clad in standard issue dress shoes, Turner wears a mean pair of hightops.

1990 April 14, Elizabeth Pincus, “Hot Blue Steel”, in Gay Community News, page 16:

Got your tongue pierced anyway / You in your high-tops any day / You in your skinny jeans anyway

His canvas high-tops were still perfectly folded over, and the white rubber toe was still white.

2020, Diane Cook, The New Wilderness, Oneworld Publications, page 263:

A kind of sports shoe that extends significantly over the wearer's ankle.


Jesus boots

Facetious misnomer based on the type of footwear (sandals) which Jesus is traditionally held to have worn.

"She had a brother, Ben. Now, he was a real hippie. Long hair, beard, wild shirts, Jesus boots. Into the Beatles. The works."

2004, Richard Laymon, The Lake, Leisure Books, published 2005, →ISBN:


ugg

ugg (third-person singular simple present uggs, present participle ugging, simple past and past participle ugged)

uggs (present singular third-person)
ugging (participle present)
ugged (participle past)
ugged (past)


ankle boot

(clothing) A boot that rises up to the ankle.


ankle sock

A short sock that covers the foot and ankle


sclaff

sclaff (third-person singular simple present sclaffs, present participle sclaffing, simple past and past participle sclaffed)

sclaffs (present singular third-person)
sclaffing (participle present)
sclaffed (participle past)
sclaffed (past)

From Scot sclaf, to shuffle: of echoic orig (

The striker sclaffed the ball between the goalie's legs.


ocreate

Wearing boots, leggings, or ochreae (greaves).


riveling

From Middle English riveling, reviling, from Old English rifeling, hrifeling (“a shoe or sandal of raw hide, a kind of shoe or sandal”), from Proto-Germanic *hrifilingaz (“shoe”), from Proto-Germanic *href-, *hraf- (“covering, shoe”), from Proto-Indo-European *kerwp-, *krēp- (“cloth, rag, lobe, fold, shoe”). Cognate with Scots rivellin, rilling, rullion (“a shoe of rawhide”), French ravelin ("shoe of rawhide"; < Germanic), Old Norse hriflingr (“leather shoe”), Latin carpisculum (“a kind of shoe, base, groundwork”), Latvian kurpe (“shoe”), Lithuanian kurpe (“one who repairs shoes, cobbler”), Welsh crydd (“shoemaker”).

cog

A rough kind of shoe or sandal made of rawhide, formerly worn in Scotland.


calkin

Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border side,
And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride.
He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and day
And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away.

1889, Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West:


pampootie

[T]hey showed me holes in their own pampooties, or cowskin sandals, and asked me the price of new ones.

1907, J. M. Synge, The Aran Islands, Part I:

Quickly, warningfully Buck Mulligan bent down […] "He heard you pissed on his halldoor in Glasthule. He's out in pampooties to murder you."

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 9]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

Sebastian sat on the window sill. Tony leaning against the stove, grinning over his folded arms, a pair of pampooties on his crossed feet.

1955, J P Donleavy, The Ginger Man, published 1955 (France), page 275:

A traditional shoe, formerly made and worn on the Aran Islands of County Galway, Ireland, consisting of a single piece of untanned hide folded around the foot and stitched with twine or a leather strap.


go-go boot

How do I look in go-go boots and a bazooka?

1993 May 8, Bill Grundfest, Paul Reiser, “The Spy Girl Who Loved Me”, in Mad About You, Helen Hunt (actor):

A kind of low-heeled women's fashion boot introduced in the 1960s.


galage

if thy galage once sticketh fast ,
The more to winde it out thou doft swinck

1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:


boot boy

(C19 British) A boy who cleans boots and shoes.

He's [Enda Kenny] acting like a political thug and a political boot boy in a party political fashion.

2013 June 28, Fiach Kelly, Lise Hand, Fionnan Sheahan, quoting Niall Collins, “Shatter urges ex-FF ministers to reveal contacts with Anglo”, in Irish Independent:

(1970s British slang) One of a gang of violent hooligans who usually wear short-cropped hair and bovver boots.

Among Bryan Gunn's myriad incarnations, from Alex Ferguson's babysitter through Scotland goalkeeper to Norwich manager, boot boy to Alex McLeish was one of the less successful. Once, just before a Scottish Cup final, McLeish discovered his size 10s were still in Aberdeen.

2009 March 22, Phil Shaw, “Gunn peppers Birmingham's automatic promotion hopes”, in The Guardian:

(British, soccer) A boy who cares for a footballer's boots.


flatform

Love it or hate it, Prada created its version of the flatform -- a men's leather dress shoe with a blue platform.

2011 April 18, Kristy Brownlee, “Explaining the flatform phenom”, in London Free Press:

In Europe, the flatforms were touted as the hottest new shoe trend at the collection runways for spring and summer 2011.

2011 June 27, Susi Banks, “Flatforms: ditch the pitch and still walk tall”, in The Australian:

Flatforms and gusset shoes (yes really) are, in theory, en vogue and tall enough to get you through puddles safely...

2012 April 20, Gilly Ferguson, “Your all-weather wardrobe: How to look stylish come rain or shine, by Olivia Palermo & co.”, in Mirror, UK:

A type of shoe with a flat platform sole.


stripper heel

Often worn by strippers during their performances.

A tall platform shoe, often with a transparent base.


boot catcher

Where's the Boot-catcher gone? I cannot get any thing to eat here, nor my boots, to go any where elſe.

1767, David Garrick, A Peep Behind the Curtain:

(historical) A person employed at an inn to take off people's boots and clean them.


jungle boot

When plaster fell from the ceiling it lay to be trampled by heavy jungle-boots.

1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 22:

The most common objects of pilfering were jungle fatigues and jungle boots, items that aircrew members were authorized – and encouraged – to wear, but which were difficult to obtain through normal supply channels since C-130 personnel were based outside of South Vietnam.

2011, Sam McGowan, Trash Haulers: The Story of the C-130 Hercules Troop Carrier/Tactical Airlift Mission:

A vented combat boot designed for use in hot, wet and humid environments.


undersock

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undersock.wav

A thermal sock worn under a normal sock for extra warmth.


Beatle boot

They were originally made for the English rock group The Beatles.

A tight-fitting, Cuban-heeled, ankle-high boot with a sharp pointed toe and either zipped or elastic sides.


reshoe

en-verb

reshoe (third-person singular simple present reshoes, present participle reshoeing, simple past and past participle reshoed or reshod)

reshoes (present singular third-person)
reshoeing (participle present)
reshoed (participle past)
reshoed (past)
reshod (participle past)
reshod (past)

(transitive) To fit with new horseshoes.


T-bar

Types of women's and girls' shoes were limited to court shoes (pumps), Alberts, ties, I-bars, T-bars, ankle straps, […]

1946, Foreign Commerce Weekly, volumes 24-25, page 13:

A girl's shoe resembling a Mary Jane, with a T-shaped strap and buckle at the front.


boot closer

One who, or that which, sews the uppers of boots.


boot crimp

A frame or device used by bootmakers for drawing and shaping the body of a boot.


toilet slipper

(Japan) One of a pair of slippers worn when visiting the toilet and removed before returning to the rest of the house.


highlow

He looks very odd, Clive thinks, very odd and very kind, and he looks like a gentleman, every inch of him:--not like Martin's father, who came to see his son lately in highlows, and a shocking bad hat, and actually flung coppers amongst the boys for a scramble.

1954, William Makepeace Thackeray, edited by Arthur Pendennis Esq., The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, Chapter 6, Paragraph 5:

An article of men's footwear, typically made of leather, lower in height than a boot, rising just above the ankle, with laces in the front.


character shoe

A heeled leather shoe, usually with one or more straps across the instep to secure it to the foot.


Winnie the Pooh

en-proper noun

Winnie the Pooh (plural Winnie the Poohs)

From a bear cub named Winnie, short for Winnipeg, and a swan named Pooh.

Taiwanese are rushing to buy patches being worn by their air force pilots that depict a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh - representing China's President Xi Jinping - as a defiant symbol of the island's resistance to Chinese war games.[…]
Chinese censors have long targeted representations of Winnie the Pooh - created by British author A.A. Milne - over internet memes that compare the fictional bear to China's president.[…]
While the Winnie the Pooh patch cannot be found on Chinese social media, Beijing has also been promoting videos and commentary about its drills around Taiwan.

2023 April 10, Sarah Wu, Yew Lun Tian, Fabian Hamacher, Yimou Lee, “A punch in the face for Xi caricature: Taiwan air force badge goes viral”, in Gareth Jones, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 2023-04-10:

"I heard Winnie the Pooh was like garlic to a vampire to the Chinese commies," he said. "Popular arts and music, poetry, dancing and singing is a threat to those in power, and I'm really trying to bring back that rock-and-roll rebellious spirit into music, you know."

2024 January 29 [2024 January 26], Tim Lee, Ray Chung, quoting Brendan Kavanagh, “London YouTuber hid in van, received death threats after piano face-off”, in Luisetta Mudie, transl., Radio Free Asia, archived from the original on 2024-01-29:

(slang, derogatory) Chinese president Xi Jinping, due to his apparent resemblance.


trench boot

Besides, whilst he had been in hospital, practically the whole of his equipment had disappeared from his kitbag – including Sylvia's two pair of sheets! – and he had no money with which to get more. He had not even any trench-boots.

1925, Ford Madox Ford, No More Parades (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 371:

A boot designed to stand up to the wet, muddy conditions of trench warfare.


beslipper

en-verb

beslipper (third-person singular simple present beslippers, present participle beslippering, simple past and past participle beslippered)

beslippers (present singular third-person)
beslippering (participle present)
beslippered (participle past)
beslippered (past)

Do not beslipper a man you respect; and only very intimate association can warrant the presentation of personal jewellery.

1860, Family Herald, volume 18, page 396:

(transitive) To put slippers on; provide with slippers.


mojari

She placed my foot on her knee to remove my mojari.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 11:

He walked behind a curtained doorway and returned first with a beautiful turban and a Bollywood-style Indo-Western suit with a matching pair of mojari shoes.

2011, Pat Love, Jon Carlson, Never Be Lonely Again, page 52:

(South Asia) A type of handmade leather shoe or slipper traditionally worn in northern India and Pakistan.


Loubs

Lexi passed Molly a pair of snakeskin, strappy sandals with five-inch stiletto heels. They had bright red leather soles. 'Louboutins,' she said. 'Every girl needs a pair of Loubs.' They were another eight hundred euros.

My fans know the words, while yours be humming. / My man buy me Loubs, why yours be bumming? / Got twice as many pairs as you; I'm doubling.

2013, Chanel West Coast (Chelsea Chanel Dudley), Alcoholic (rap song)

(slang) shoes designed by Christian Louboutin


shoegasm

If the post had been about *plaid* doc martens, I would have said Schuh, right smack dab in Glasgow's downtown section. I had several shoegasms whilst there.

1996 June 21, Raeven, “Re: RED DOC MARTENS; RED FLANNEL JACKET”, in rec.music.industrial (Usenet):

Everyone knows that I can have a shoegasm just trying on a sexy pair of stilettos.

2007, Eli Davidson, Funky to Fabulous: Surefire Success Strategies for the Savvy, Sassy, and Swamped, Oak Grove Publishing, →ISBN, page 92:

Having a shoegasm over these Nicholas Kirkwood heels for summer!

2014, Landon Peoples, "Sexualization of Insta Fashion", Revival Magazine, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2014, page 71

(slang) An intense excitement or pleasure caused by looking at, wearing, or buying shoes.


knee high

(chiefly in the plural) a sock that reaches almost up to the knee


shoe size

What's your shoe size?

The size of shoe that fits a person, often indicated by an alphanumeric code.

talle

see also the verb calzar, meaning "to have as shoe size"


ballet slipper

A flexible shoe without a heel and fastened by a strap or ribbon, designed for dancing.


ballet shoe

(chiefly UK) A flexible shoe without a heel and fastened by a strap or ribbon, designed for dancing.


pointe shoe

Instead, I would stick to dancing and continue plunging my toes into the beautiful, tight, shiny sheaths called pointe shoes.

(ballet) A type of shoe with a strengthened toe, used for dancing on pointe.


as ever trod shoe-leather

/əz ɛvə ˈtɹɒd ˈʃuːˌlɛðə/

/æz ɛvɚ ˈtɹɑd ˈʃuːˌlɛðɚ/

Treading shoe-leather refers to walking, in the sense of “walking on this earth”.

As grate a rascal, as ever trod shoe-leather.

1767, Andrew Barton [pseudonym; Thomas Forrest or Francis Hopkinson?], The Disappointment, or, The Force of Credulity: A New American Comic-opera, of Two Acts, New York [i.e., Philadelphia, Penn.]: Printed [by John Dunlap?], →OCLC; The Disappointment, or, The Force of Credulity: A New American Comic-opera, in Three Acts, 2nd edition, Philadelphia, Penn.: Printed for and sold by Francis Shallus […], 1796, →OCLC, page 34:

As handsome a gentleman, to be sure, as ever trod shoe leather! I wonder that old folks can be so very, very blind!

1809 February, E[nos] Bronson et al., “On the Marriage Manufactory at Gretna Green”, in Select Reviews, and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines, volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: From the Lorenzo Press of E. Bronson; published by Hopkins and Earle, […], →OCLC, page 118:

"He is a brave Indian, sir." – "Oh – is that all?" – "As brave a man, as ever trod shoe leather." – "Hum!" – "Yes." – "But Indians – do they tread shoe leather?" – "He's very brave, I mean – very." – "Why not say so, then?" – "I do."

1825, [John Neal], chapter XXVI, in Brother Jonathan: Or, The New Englanders: In Three Volumes, volume II, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 446:

[I]t's his temper as has saved his life; he's the best-temperdest cretur as ever trod shoe leather.

1830, [Theodore Edward Hook], chapter II, in Maxwell. … In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 54–55:

I've ne'er heard his name named since I saw him go out of the yard as stout a man as ever trod shoe-leather.

1855 October 6, [Elizabeth Gaskell], “Half a Life-time Ago”, in Charles Dickens, editor, Household Words: A Weekly Journal, volume XII, number 289, London: [Household Words] Office (printed by Bradbury and Evans), →OCLC, page 236:

It was as finely organized a Church as ever trod shoe-leather.

c. 1855, Lyman Beecher, “The Revival”, in Charles Beecher, editor, Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D., volume II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, published 1865, →OCLC, page 72:

I'm sure I never shall forget the turn young SIMMONS gave me when he came in with that paper as he'd been and copied out of a winder thro' being in a west-end house, tho' livin' at home with his mother, as steady a woman as ever trod shoe-leather, [...]

1865 September 23, “Mrs. Brown and the Emperor of the French”, in Fun, London: Published (for the proprietors) by Thomas Baker, →OCLC, page 17:

(idiomatic, archaic) As ever existed or lived.


Nikes

en-noun

Nikes pl (normally plural, singular Nike)

Every time I laced up my Nikes, they became my badge of honor. That swoosh became a shield I wore to protect my dreams, held inside a chest with lungs that were born tired.

2010, Dottie Lessard, Seven Letters That Saved My Life, page 31:

(colloquial) Sports shoes of the brand Nike.


hiking boot

A type of resistant boot designed for hiking.


opened-toe

(sewing) (of a foot of a sewing machine) that does not have its front area cut away (opposite of closed-toe) https://books.google.com/books?id=5W-ChoTedM4C&pg=PA128&dq=%22closed-toe%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC4Q6AEwADgKahUKEwjEiNe5j-nIAhVFLYgKHRv-Abw#v=onepage&q=%22closed-toe%22&f=false


gym shoe

gym shoe (countable and uncountable, plural gym shoes)

(Cincinnati, Michigan, Chicago) running shoe, trainer.


paduka

From a Sanskrit word, derived from the word for "foot".

These natural-rubber sandals are based on the paduka or toe-knob sandals, a 5,000-year-old Indian shoe design.

2009 June 3, Derick Chetty, “Flip-flop with modern sole”, in Toronto Star:

Traditional Indian footwear, essentially consisting of a sole with a post and knob engaged between the big toe and second toe.


mud-kicker

Lay off the broads and the high priced mud-kickers.

1974, James Vernon Hatch, Ted Shine, Black theater, U.S.A, page 446:

I drove through the Block to see what whore I could test my skills on, and I saw this black mud-kicker standing on the corner of Gay & Baltimore Streets.

1998, Emory Newkirk, Players of the Block: The World's Famous Block, That Is, →ISBN, page 16:

I'd guerilla my Watusi ass into a chrome-and-leather ho den and gattle-gun my pimp-dream shit into some mud-kicker's frosty car.

2013, Iceberg Slim, Airtight Willie & Me, →ISBN, page 17:

(slang) Streetwalker; a prostitute who looks for customers in public places, especially one who works for a pimp.


lotus shoe

A specially shaped shoe used for footbinding.


elastic sides

But Mary preferred to sit quietly on the beach. "The dressing and undressing is such a trouble," said she. As it was, one of her elastic-sides was full of sand.

1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, Raleigh, NC: Hayes Barton Press, Part IV, Chapter I, p. 247:

Brilliant Lace [was] decked out for the solemnization in bright blue shirt and spotless yellow corduroys and bright tan elastic-sides and velour wideawake.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XI, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 177:

I was wearing a pair of elastic sides so, being a mug, slipped them off and put one on each of his horns. We all stood around for the photo.

2006, Brian Taylor, The Moonlight Stallion and Other Yarns from the Australian Outback, Australia: Hachette, published 2012:

(Australia, New Zealand) Slip-on boots similar to riding boots with a piece of elastic set into the ankles.


Chelsea boot

Named after Chelsea, an area in London. The name was used by London cobbler Thomas Cotton by 1831.

A close-fitting ankle boot with elastic side panels.


strappies

Tie on your desired strappies and strut the store's catwalk. Three inches taller and looking fiercely sexy, Castillo's hot heels will surely put you in the groove for a night of lounge hopping and cosmo slinging.

2003, Shecky's Girlshop Guide to NYC Shopping, page 111:


Louis heel

The fashion of Louis heels for street shoes brought out the leather Louis heel, to compete with the Louis heel of wood, and it also led to the development of important machines for breasting and finishing this heel.

1916, American Shoemaking, volume 61, Mcleish Communications, page 49:

"See if you can squeeze into these." She handed me a pair of gold brocade shoes with high Louis heels.

1957, Gypsy Rose Lee, chapter 8, in Gypsy, Berkeley, CA: Frog, Ltd, published 1999, page 72:

A shoe heel with a concave curve and outward taper at the bottom.


stoga

Probably derived from Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Note the existence of the Conestoga Cigar Company from the 1880s.

(US, obsolete) a type of cigar popular in the United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

(US, obsolete) A heavy work boot manufactured in the northern United States and in Canada in the nineteenth century.


stoga boot

Probably ultimately derived from Conestoga, Pennsylvania.

In six days they crimped and made forty-five pairs of Stoga Boots.

1830 January 9, Mechanics Press, (Utica, NY), page 66:

(dated) A type of sturdy work boot; a brogan.


waffle stomper

He's got ocean blue eyes and blond crew-cut hair, and he wears old double-knit pants with waffle stompers.

2000, Jack Lopez, Snapping Lines, →ISBN:

Instead, the Brooklyn-born Baum focuses his efforts more narrowly—on cowboy boots: horned-back alligator cowboy boots from Billy Martin's that he merrily places on his desk, right over left, so that his entire body is eclipsed by the foreshortened soles of these well-shined waffle stompers.

2007, Jennifer Solow, The Booster: A Novel, →ISBN, page 17:

The effect was spoiled slightly by the waffle stompers on his feet, but she'd heard somewhere he lived in Scotland most of the year now, so maybe he was what they called a hill walker.

2011, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Cleopatra 7.2, →ISBN, page 101:

(footwear, informal) A type of heavy hiking boot with ridged soles


penny loafer

A leather loafer with an ornamental slotted leather band across the top where a coin is often placed.


boot tree

A foot-shaped piece of wood (or plastic) that fits inside a boot in order for it to keep its shape.


top piece

The Mayor took himself up in the lift, quite naked of course, except for his top-piece and neckpiece with his two shopping-bags […].

1973, Christina Stead, The Little Hotel, Text Classics, published 2016, page 79:

(colloquial, chiefly US) Something worn on the head; a hat, a wig or toupee.


shoefie

Daisy, Maria and Jo – I have such fond memories of taking my first shoefies with you guys in the sixth form common room.

2015, Hannah Rochell, “Acknowledgements”, in En Brogue: The Trainers Guide, London: Saltyard Books, →ISBN:

I grab my umbrella and swagger to the garage door, stopping long enough to turn around and say, "Oh, Mom. I borrowed your shoes. I hope that's okay." / She nods dazedly. / "Aren't they bitchin'?" I ask Hadley, staring down at my feet. I pull out my phone and take a quick picture. "Shoefie!"

2016, Jessica Brody, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, in A Week of Mondays, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 242:

When we swung open the door to the stairwell, Selfie was sitting on the stairs holding her phone at different angles near her foot. As I got closer, I realized she was photographing one of her high-heeled boots. Prezbo looked puzzled. "Oh, hi." She glanced up at us. "I'm taking a shoefie."

2017, Holly Kowitt, The Principal’s Underwear is Missing, New York, N.Y.: Feiwel and Friends, Macmillan Publishers, →ISBN, page 137:

(photography, slang, neologism) A photograph that one takes of one's own shoes while one is wearing them.


patent leathers

[…] his patent leathers were beautifully polished, and his hair curled by machinery.

1870 February 1, “Robin Hood and His Merry Men, and the Larks They Played in the Greenwood Shade. […] Chapter III. Concluding the Mystery of Little John’s History.”, in Edwin J[ohn] Brett, editor, Boys of England: A Young Gentleman’s Journal of Sport, Travel, Fun and Instruction, volume VII, number 167, London: Publishing Office, […], page 160, column 2:

What if the fertilizer is sometimes on the sidewalk, gravel walk, or front porch, and the first dark night finds it distributed by the Cinderellian slipper or patent leathers of some party bound pedestrian?

1889 June 15, E. L. P., “An Adjacent Cow Town”, in The Chicago Tribune, volume XLIX, published 17 June 1889, page 4, column 6:

Kids with well-worn gym shoes mingled with children wearing patent leathers.

2018, Judith Rolfs, chapter 42, in The Windemere Affair, Prism, →ISBN:


monkey boot

“I hadn’t been involved in anything since I was at uni: Reclaim the Night, shaved head, monkey boots, nought-to-60 radicalisation in about two weeks.”

2016 November 20, Doon Mackichan, The Guardian:


rugby boot

His rugby boots were caked in mud after the game.

A shoe with rounded studs, used to play sports on soft ground.


dress shoe

A shoe designed to be worn at smart casual or formal events, typically made of leather.


athletic shoe

(footwear) A shoe designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, typically with a soft, rubber sole.


valenok

(mostly plural) A traditional Russian felt boot.


house slipper

A slipper designed to be worn inside the house


skyscraper heel

skyscraper heel (plural skyscraper heels)


softwear

I also need church shoes – size 3 or 4 – for my eight-year-old daughter [and] softwear and church clothes for a 12-year-old boy.

2011, M.T., Dear Christine, The Nation News (Barbados)

At the time he was wearing a white T-shirt, long dress pants, and white softwear.

2017, “Elderly man on police missing persons list”, in Daily, Barbados: Nation:


mojri

One shoe-like slipper, probably a mojri, lies to the side, looking quite new.

2009, Githa Hariharan, Fugitive Histories, page 198:

Suraj looked like he had stopped breathing. Sethji pressed down on his genitals with his mojri.

He carried a silver hookah, a dagger, a sword, and a carved knife tied to his waist. The mojris on his feet had red embroidery.

2015, Tridip Suhrud, translating Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, Sarasvatichandra I, Orient BlackSwan 2015, p. 45


dubes

From the name of the Irish shoe company, Dubarry.

Siobhan wore black dubes with her school uniform.

(Ireland) Dubarry boat shoes (associated with affluent areas of Dublin)


safety boot

A boot with a reinforced toecap which protects the wearer's foot from accidental injury.


safety shoe

a shoe with a reinforced toecap which protects the wearer's foot from accidental injury.

chaussure de sécurité

shoe with reinforced toecap — see also steel-toe boot


boot board

(alpine skiing) The part of the ski boot underneath the liner, typically made of plastic or hard foam.


blutcher

She wore on her feet a pair of dirty blutchers.

"The Woman At The Store", from Selected Short Stories by Katherine Mansfield (first published in 1912)


bootery

When the final climax came with the front of Holman's bootery broken out and the party trying on the shoes in the display window only Gay didn't hear the fire whistle.


Birks

Indeed, sneakers and Birks are by no means the giveaways they once were. They are pretty much an integral part of every wardrobe, not to mention every designer collection on Avenue Montaigne.

2023 August 7, Vanessa Friedman, “Do These Shoes Make Me Look Like a Tourist?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal, footwear) Birkenstock sandals


rullion

From Old English rifeling (“a kind of shoe”).


high button shoe

high button shoe (plural high button shoes)

A bed slat leaning against the wall, and in one corner a woman’s high button shoe, curled up at the toe and broken over the instep.

1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 6, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1958, page 56:

She protested she could not read for a part which obliged her to appear in no more than a bra, a corset, and high-button shoes.

1971, Mordecai Richler, St. Urbain’s Horseman, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 19, p. 429:

(historical) An ankle boot fastened by a row of buttons (in fashion from the late 19th to mid-20th century).


jutti

You have such a variety of juttis and boots, and you wear all of them turn by turn.

2005, Anna Sieklucka, Santalinama: Partition Stories, →OCLC, page 19:

(India, particularly north Indian) An item of footwear embroidered with silver or gold thread.


jet shoe

(astronautics) A shoe with a manually-operated thruster, developed by NASA in the 1960s for use in zero gravity.


crew sock

From the federal procurement in the United States of the 1940s, as the yeoman would order a type of socks to be worn by everyone of a Navy vessel’s crew—which were then distributed outwith the United States Armed Forces.

A sock that extends to the mid calf and is often characterized by being ribbed above the ankle.


no show sock

So called because it does not show above the wearer's shoe.

A sock that extends no further than the ankle.


chukka boot

Alteration of chukker; from a similar polo player's boot.

An ankle-high leather boot, typically suede, that has open lacing with two or three pairs of eyelets.


bemoccasined

One has a very brotherly feeling toward all the bemoccasined and pack-laden individuals he sees getting on at Boston and next morning by the time breakfast is over, he has conversed with half the people in the car.

The picturesque, bemoccasined woodrangers, usually spoiling for a fight, were now strangely apathetic.

1948, DeCost Smith, Martyrs of the Oblong and Little Nine, Caxton Printers, Ltd., page 194:

and Solomon's new world was a small child's-eye-view of wagon wheels, plodding oxen, bemoccasined Indian traders and a Territory in transition.

1960, New Mexico Historical Review, volumes 35-35, page 50:


purser's crabs

(UK, naval slang) Boots issued by the navy.


French heel

The reason the French heel has not been entirely adopted is owing to the fact that while the making of the French foot requires an entirely new machine, it being such a radical change from the English foot, the leg can be made on the very machine which formerly made legs for English feet.

1908, Textile World Record - Volume 35, page 696:

Grey marl and ribbed, with a cleverly turned foot she called a French heel that made them hold their own shape, like cartoon socks.

2010, Belinda Bauer, Blacklands, page 105:

The reverse French heel (page 64) is worked in the reverse order of the topdown French heel. The gusset is worked first, and then the heel turn, followed by the heel flap.

2012, Beth Parrott, Charlene Schurch, The Sock Knitter's Handbook: Expert Advice, Tips, and Tricks:

A shaped heel with narrow reinforcement on a sock or stocking.


spike heel

He had pleaded with her to come back to the yacht to discuss things away from the DJ and the cocktails and eavesdropping jet set, but she had turned on her spike heels and disappeared.

2007, Tasmina Perry, Daddy's Girls, page 473:


pattener

From Middle English patyner; equivalent to patten + -er.

The pattenmakers, it seems, used the same material: the king, therefore, steps in between the patteners and the fletchers[…]

1860, John Hewitt, Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: Supplement. Comprising the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, page 531:

The pattenmakers or patteners still find occupation in Yorkshire.

1882, John Hewitt, Old Yorkshire, volume 3, page 22:

But even though numbers of very small crafts, such as bookbinders, clockmakers, or patteners were not associated with pageants in the 1415 listing[…]

1997, Sarah Rees Jones, The Government of Medieval York: Essays in Commemoration of the 1396 Royal Charter, →ISBN, page 151:


toe-crushing

en-adj

toe-crushing (comparative more toe-crushing, superlative most toe-crushing)

more toe-crushing (comparative)
most toe-crushing (superlative)

Nasty unpolished toe-crushing boots are equally acceptable, but don't let anyone see you wearing neat woolly knee-socks.

1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 62:

Of footwear: that does not have enough room for the toes.


climbing shoe

A kind of close-fitting footwear designed for rock climbing


Timb

"Get up, you stank-ass fuckin ho!" He kicked her in her ribs so hard with his Timbs that she slid all the way over to the other side of the elevator, cracking her knee against the wall.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 90:

(informal) Short for Timberland (“boot made by the Timberland Company”).


Doc Martens

en-noun

Doc Martens pl (normally plural, singular Doc Marten)

(informal) Dr. Martens-brand footwear, especially a style of high lace-up leather boot with air-cushioned sole, traditionally associated with British skinheads, adopted by other subcultures at various times.


track shoe

A kind of running shoe fitted with spikes on the bottom


slipperette

A soft slipper or similar foot covering, especially a disposable slipper of a kind distributed to train or aeroplane passengers.


kletterschuh

kletterschuh (plural kletterschuhe or kletterschuhs)

kletterschuhe (plural)
kletterschuhs (plural)

Fitting a kletterschuh will be a little different than fitting most other types of shoes.

[…] kletterschuhs and knickers of Dartmouth's old mountaineers are gone.

1994, Climbing, numbers 142-144, page 158:

Relying on pitons hand forged by Yvon Chouinard in the Camp 4 parking lot and Austrian kletterschuhs, Bridwell and his cohorts practiced a ground-up ethic that outlawed previewing, hang-dogging, or resting on gear.

2002, Peter Potterfield, Greg Child, Over the Top: Humorous Mountaineering Tales, page 91:

She was definitely female, outfitted with a spandex halter-top, Gore-Tex shorts, and latex kletterschuhs, yet she smelled like a bicycle mechanic.

2016, Darrell Mulch, Nagah and the Thunderegg, page 205:

A lightweight boot used in rock climbing.


approach shoe

A kind of footwear, a hybrid between a hiking boot and a climbing shoe.


flat-heeled

Recovered from reverie, Miss Marley joined him, coming cautiously over the rocks in her flat-heeled shoes, and skimping back her frock a little to mark her step.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 128:

Of footwear, having very low heels so that the foot is almost parallel to the ground; low-heeled.


flight sock

A compression sock for use in prolonged periods of sitting during air travel.


pixie boot

A type of short fashionable boot with low heel and pointed toe.


basketball shoes

basketball shoes pl (normally plural, singular basketball shoe)

desc

バスケットボールシューズ

→ Japanese: バスケットボールシューズ (basukettobōru shūzu)

→ Korean: 바스켓볼 슈즈 (baseuketbol syujeu)

Originally designed for basketball players, then later became used by the general public.

(Canada, US) A pair of bulky athletic shoes, manufactured to be shock absorbent and stable for the footing.


washikong

Costumes are simple, the girls wearing full short skirts, blouses trimmed in swansdown, washikongs or alpagats, and decorated metallic paper crowns.

(Caribbean) A rubber-soled shoe or plimsoll.


pigache

From French pigache (“kind of hoe, kind of hoofprint, kind of shoe”).

bor

Anselm of Canterbury
William Rufus
pigache

His new appearance extended down to his pigache boots—with toes pointed too long for common sense. Tristan, being a genial sort who had long ago learned the benefits ofkeeping his honest thoughts to himself, merely nodded.

2010 September 14, Nina Ansley, The Plague of Provence, →ISBN, page 294:

As if not to be outdone by the fair sex, as ladies headwear ranged ever higher, so too men's footwear became ever longer... by 1450 the shoes were known as pikes or pigaches after a kind of pail with a long handle.

2016, Karen Bowman, Corsets and Codpieces..., Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:

(historical, inexact) Synonym of poulaine (“any style of long-toed medieval shoe”).


desert boot

(footwear) A type of laced ankle-high boots made of soft suede with a crepe sole


saddle oxford

[…]because of her childish gait, or because I had memorized her as always wearing heelless shoes, her saddle oxfords looked somehow too large and too high-heeled for her.

1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 27, in Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 1, page 113:

The saddle oxford, whether brown and white, black and white, or navy and white, whether by Spaulding or another manufacturer, caught on as something both new and comfortable.

1972 winter, “Panorama of a Century—1934-1943”, in The Anchora of Delta Gamma, volume LXXXIX, number 2:

On one foot she had a house shoe and on the other a saddle oxford.

2002, Hal Bynum, The Promise, Beauregard Records and Books, →ISBN, page 40:


Doc Martened

The occupants of Railton Road were bell-jeaned, dome-Afroed, Doc Martened and muscle-teed: as bad and black as they could possibly muster themselves to be […]

2017, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Foreign Soil: And Other Stories, page 92:

In the matter of unsuitable clothing, Mark felt he had very good grounds for considering she didn't have a ripped-stockinged, Doc Martened leg to stand on.


hip boot

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hip boot.wav

A tall boot that extends up to the hip, typically made of rubber, initially designed to be worn by fishermen.


trainer sock

Pulling my trainers off but retaining my sweaty black Primark trainer socks, I step into the heels, one foot – God, they're high – then the other.

2011, Polly Williams, How To Be Married, Headline, page 135:

Next, I copied the standard uniform adjustments: rolled-up skirt, undone top button, trainer socks instead of regulation ankle ones. A girl in my class asked why I didn't shave my legs – I knew how to, right?

2022, Laila Woozeer, Not Quite White, Simon & Schuster, page 85:

(British) A short sock that covers the foot and beyond that not essentially more than the ankle.


sneaker sock

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A short sock that covers the foot and beyond that not essentially more than the ankle.


shoesies

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shoesies.wav

Water from your cap brim splashes on your nose, / Water in your shoesies, ticklin’ of your toes, / Spurting down your backbone like a leaky drain— / Bathing like a hobo, riding in the rain!

1898 October 27, “The Road Rider”, in The Wheel and Cycling Trade Review, volume XXII, number 11 / 557, New York, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., section “Mud Larking”, page 32, column 1:

And, girls, they were n’t even dressed warm—their toesies were almost out of their shoesies.

1910 December, Charlotte Sedgwick, “Judy’s Idea”, in St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks, volume XXXVIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co.; London: Frederick Warne & Co., published 1911, page 153, column 2:

THAT WAS SOME LINE DRIVE, CHARLIE BROWN… IT KNOCKED YOUR SHOESIES AND YOUR SOCKIES RIGHT OFF! MAYBE WE SHOULD COUNT TO SEE IF YOU STILL HAVE ALL YOUR TOESIES…

1979, Charles M[onroe] Schulz, Look Out Behind You, Snoopy: Selected Cartoons from Here Comes the April Fool, Volume 1 (Peanuts), New York, N.Y.: Fawcett Crest, published 1982 April, →ISBN:

“Oh, look, here are my sunflower shoesies.” She held them up. They were sandals decorated at the toes with huge sunflowers. “Remember when we went to the day spa in the Other Realm? These are the shoesies I wore.”

1999, Nancy Holder, Up, Up, and Away, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 77:

Here’s an example from one of these commercials: […] From the script: […] CHILD: (IN A SMALL WISTFUL VOICE) Did you bring me some new shoesies, Daddy? CLARK: Ummm … Daddy doesn’t have any money for shoesies these days … because the mean old grocers won’t stock Daddy’s foil.

2009, Ron Ploof, “Trust and Faith”, in Read This First: The Executive’s Guide to New Media—From Blogs to Social Networks, New York, N.Y., Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, page 56:

Well I’m going there this minute / to the Gramma who is in it / and the Doozie who is barking / and I’m bouncing bouncing bouncing / and I’m flipping off my shoesies / and I’m rolling down my socksies / and I’m sighing / and I’m singing / and I’m . . . / THERE!

2010, Barbara Joosse, Sleepover at Gramma’s House, New York, N.Y.: Philomel Books, →ISBN:

‘[…] Welcome. You’re soaked. Come in. Come in. Lucy will take your coat. And wet shoesies off, I think.’ Her handshake was bone-dry and feather-soft. The kind so cherished by the Vice Squad Gaffer. She did not acknowledge Suzy. And shoesies? Who says a word like that, these days? […] Mother helped him on with his shoesies and wet coat.

2010, Jonathan Lewis, Into Darkness, Arrow Books, published 2011, →ISBN, pages 233 and 241:


portyanka

en-noun

portyanka (plural portyanki or portyankas)

Borrowed from Russian портя́нка (portjánka) or (more commonly in the plural) портя́нки (portjánki).

bor+

(usually in the plural) A cotton wrapping worn in place of a sock by the Russian military, to avoid chafing, absorb sweat and improve the foothold.