Dictionary

heelpiece en · NOUN

Etymology

From heel + piece.

Meanings

1. A piece of armour to protect the heels.
   • Courts are to be the theatres of your wars, where you should be always as completely armed , and even with the addition of a heelpiece. January 15 1753, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, in Letters to His Son, published in 1774
2. A piece of leather fixed on the heel of a shoe.
   • [H]e pulled out a little wooden stool, an' stud up upon it, and dipped a little piggen into the pitcher, an' tuk out the full av it, an' put it beside the stool, an' thin sot down undher the pitcher, an' begun to work at puttin' a heelpiece an a bit iv a brogue jist fittin' fur himsilf. 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 373:
3. (figuratively) The end.
   • the heel-piece of his book 1761, Robert Lloyd, The Cobler of Tissington's Letter to David Garrick, Esq.:

Forms