Careful Words

heel (n.)

heel (v.)

heel (adj.)

O Lady, he is dead and gone!

Lady, he's dead and gone!

And at his head a green grass turfe,

And at his heels a stone.

Thomas Percy (1728-1811): The Friar of Orders Gray.

  The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.

Woes cluster. Rare are solitary woes;

They love a train, they tread each other's heel.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 63.

One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

So fast they follow.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 7.