square toes
- noun
- Archaic
:
persona conservadora
- Do you really think he's a square toe just because he prefers classic cars?
Examples
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They laughed at his square toes views on dating and relationships.
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Despite working in a modern office, her square toes attitude made her seem out of touch.
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He was considered a square toes by his more progressive colleagues.
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My uncle is such a square toes that he refuses to try new things.
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My grandfather is a real square toes, always insisting on following the same old traditions.
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At the party, I realized that my friend's square toes opinions on fashion were quite outdated.
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Many viewed her as a square toes because she still believed in writing letters instead of emails.
Synonyms
31
8.1
A person who is old-fashioned and not trendy
A person who is conventional and not willing to try new things
Antonyms
How Conservative
- Archaic
6
6.5
- Formal
85
4.6
983
4.4
105
5.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The word 'square' (conventional, unfashionable) gives a clear clue to the idiomatic sense, but the constituent 'toe/toes' has no transparent semantic contribution to meaning a conservative person. Because the overall sense relies on the figurative use of 'square' while the role of 'toes' is unpredictable and not compositional, a learner may partially infer the meaning from 'square' but cannot fully derive it from both parts.
Etymology
Square toes comes from the image of old shoes with a stiff, square front, where the square shape at the toes looked very formal and old-fashioned. So calling someone square toes compares them to those shoes and means 'very formal and conservative'.