toe shoe

noun

variants or less commonly toe slipper

plural toe shoes also toe slippers

: a usually satin-covered ballet shoe that has a reinforced toe box (see toe box sense 2) and shank (see shank entry 1 sense 2h(1)) which enable the wearer to balance on the tips of the toes : pointe shoe

… made her dissolve the hard glue on the tips of her toe shoes with hot water so that she would develop the strength to support her own weight on pointe …

—Jennifer Homans

Whereas other ballet masters let women take class in soft slippers … Balanchine made them wear toe shoes for the entire class.

—Anita Finkel

Libby was twirling around in her pink toe slippers. She is thirteen and thinks she's a great ballerina.

—Judy Blume

Word History

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for toe shoe

• blew
• blue
• boo
• brew
• chew
• chou
• clue
• coo
• coup
• crew
• cue
• dew