bootheel
1
7.3
- noun
- /ˈbuːtˌhiːl/
- After hiking all day, my bootheel left impressions in the soft earth.
- the Missouri Bootheel
Examples
-
The bootheel region of Missouri is known for its rich agricultural heritage.
-
Pretty soon he slicks back his hair, and his bootheels leave tiny hexes in the concrete island.
Fiction book (1994) -
I live in Missouri, and a lot of the bootheel and the Springfield area go this way, too.
Blog text (13) -
The very land itself was destroyed in the Missouri Bootheel, making it unfit even for farmers for many years.
Blog text (4) -
The bedroom door was pocked with bootheel-shaped gouges.
Fiction book (1991) -
The map doesn't include Tennessee, but I don't imagine the intensity would get worse anywhere there than in the Missouri bootheel.
Blog text (4) -
Cocking his leg, he wiped the dusty bootheel carefully against the couch.
Fiction book (1990) -
In the meantime, from Feaver's gargled sounds and the thumping of his bootheels, I decided he was being dragged along.
Fiction book (1999) -
Pulled over for speeding in the Missouri bootheel (Limbaugh country) returning from Florida, and I believe it was, to borrow terminology from the favorite former Senate candidate of residents in Limbaugh country, legitimate speeding.
Blog text (28) -
I let her go, walk home, chanting "magistrate, magistrate, magistrate" in rhythm with my bootheels' clicks on the pavement.
Fiction book (1994)
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Bootheel comes from the two simple words boot and heel, and it originally meant the 'back part of the sole' of a boot. By a clear picture — the shape of that back part — people also call any area on a map that looks like it a bootheel, which is why part of Missouri is known by that name.