square-toesn.
1. A precise, formal, old-fashioned person; one having strict or narrow ideas of conduct. Usually qualified by old, and with initial capital.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > [noun] > conformity to high standards > excessive > one who
puritan1592
Savonarola1689
square-toes1771
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > bias, prejudice > narrow-mindedness > [noun] > person
square-toes1771
illiberal1818
parvanimity1873
faddist1883
1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker II. 43 I could hardly keep my gravity on this ludicrous occasion; but old Square-toes was differently affected.
1785 G. A. Bellamy Apol. Life (ed. 3) I. 195 He was sorry that old Square-toes was obliged..to go out of town immediately.
1819 ‘R. Rabelais the Younger’ Abeillard & Heloisa 219 Finding old Square-toes in the study Stern, gloomy, sulky, dark, and muddy.
1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days (ed. 3) Pref. p. xii Giving the idea that Arnold turned out a set of young square-toes.
1889 R. L. Stevenson Master of Ballantrae v. 134 Even Square-toes has a certain vivacity when his stake is imperilled.
2. Square-toed shoes.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > footwear > shoe or boot > shoe > [noun] > types of > with specific shaped toes > shoes
square-toes1852
1852 W. M. Thackeray Henry Esmond I. viii. 181 The Doctor made a low bow..and walked off on his creaking square-toes after his patron.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1915; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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