French heel

English

Shoes with French heels

Noun

French heel (plural French heels)

1. A curved heel on a woman's shoe that is pitched forward so that the weight of the heel falls on the plantar arch.
   • 1882, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, page 324:

     The French heel displaces the posterior support, and both piers of the double arch strike at once, which is fatal to grace of motion.

   • 2006, Fiona Macdonald, Shoes and Boots through History:

     This embroidered and beaded silk shoe sports a sloping French heel.

   • 2009, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, page 298:

     I think it was the eldest Miss Lopez; I couldn't see her face, but I remember looking at the high French heel of her little shoe.

2. A shaped heel with narrow reinforcement on a sock or stocking.
   • 1908, Textile World Record - Volume 35, page 696:

     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.

   • 2010, Belinda Bauer, Blacklands, page 105:

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

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

     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.