red-heeledadj.
/rɛdˈhiːld/, U.S. /ˈrɛdˌhild/ 1. Of shoes or pumps: having red heels.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > footwear > shoe or boot > [adjective] > with heel > with specific type of heel
corked1519
high-heeled1618
high heel1677
red-heeled1709
low-heel1712
stilt-heeled1772
court1903
wedge-heeled1939
Cuban-heeled1940
spike-heeled1953
stiletto-heeled1959
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 67. ⁋1 I gave Mr. Didapper a private Reprimand for wearing red-heel'd Shoes.
1725 A. Ramsay Gentle Shepherd iv. ii. 65 I come hame struting in my Red-heel'd Shoon.
1801 Mrs. Robinson Sylphid III. 66 His redheeled pumps for a pair of squaretoed boots.
1899 H. G. Graham Social Life Scotl. 18th Cent. (ed. 2) 19 Young men..displaying their new fashions, their red stockings and red-heeled shoes.
1921 R. Sabatini Scaramouche (U.S. ed.) i. ii. 20 His lacquered, red-heeled shoes were buckled in diamonds.
1947 M. P. Willcocks True-born Englishman vi. 52 Then the fop, delicately walking on red-heeled shoes, must beware of the water which dripped from spouts or fell from the projecting pent-houses.
1993 Guardian (Nexis) 24 Dec. 4 With a click of my red heeled shoes I was home.
2. depreciative (with the suggestion of foppishness or ostentatious display). Wearing shoes with red heels. Also figurative.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > [adjective] > wearing footwear > wearing shoes > other
well-shod1509
pattened1519
pumped1600
soleated1623
high-shoed1649
red-heeled1716
sandalled1802
brogue-shod1812
high-shod1856
high-shoed1868
snow-shoed1896
plimsolled1955
sneakered1961
1716 Mil. & Other Poems 199 The red-heel'd Fop ran down with Gore, Who had broke so many Ladies Hearts before.
1758 Gentleman's Diary 47 The red-heeled Petits Maitres of the Age.
1780 E. Newenham Let. 6 Nov. in B. Franklin Papers (1997) XXXIII. 503 We are now to have red-heeled Carlisle & Commissioner Eden.
1840 W. M. Thackeray Paris Sketch Bk. II. 229 Ancient French Tragedy, red-heeled, patched, and be-periwigged, lies in the grave.
1894 G. Du Maurier Trilby II. 206 Lords and ladies gay—red-heeled, patched, powdered.
1916 J. J. Jusserand With Americans of Past & Present Days 240 All those red-heeled young philosophers had much better, for their sake and ours, have stayed at court.
1936 D. Devlin Coll. Poems (1989) 107 I am still lorded by these red-heeled bucks with bird brains.
1997 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 29 Aug. 31 His eyes narrow, like when..a red-heeled, luscious-lipped, mammaried blonde is chattering nonsense at him.
Derivatives
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1818 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 3 532 Whence, like a rascal's visage in the pillory, Stares, fringed and flounced with flannel, the redheelery.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1709