verb (common).—1. To kick: e.g., ‘I’ll TOE your bum for you.’
2. (colloquial).—To reach (or touch) with the toes: e.g., TO TOE A LINE (A MARK, or THE SCRATCH) = (1) to stand at attention (or at the start); (2) = to be fully prepared for a struggle or contest; (3) to come up to one’s obligations; and (4) to border on.
1835. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, xiv. He was a man to TOE THE MARK, and to make every one else step up to it.
1857. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, II. iv. The customary ‘flapper-shaking’ before TOEING THE SCRATCH for business.
1881. J. BURROUGHS, Pepacton, 201. Then more meadow land with a neglected orchard, and then the little gray school-house itself TOEING the highway.
PHRASES. TO TURN UP THE TOES = to die: see HOP THE TWIG; TO TREAD ON ONE’S TOES = (1) to vex; and (2) to interfere.
1861. C. READE, The Cloister and the Hearth, xxiv. Several arbalestriers TURNED THEIR TOES UP.
1868–9. BROWNING, The Ring and the Book, I. 130.
| Yet presently found he could not turn about | |
| Nor take a step i’ the case, and fail to TREAD | |
| ON SOME ONE’S TOE who either was a friend, | |
| Or a friend’s friend, or friend’s friend thrice-removed. |
1900. R. H. SAVAGE, Brought to Bay, vii. ‘I only hope that he will soon TURN UP HIS TOES!’ was the wrathful speculator’s adjuration.
