TO HEEL Definition & Meaning

to heel

Close behind someone, as in The dog started chasing the car but Miriam called him to heel . This expression is used almost solely in reference to dogs. The heel in this idiom, first recorded in 1810, is the person's.
Under control or discipline, as in By a series of surprise raids the police brought the gang members to heel . This expression alludes to controlling a dog by training it to follow at one's heels. [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

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Now, members of the opposition — duly elected Democratic politicians — are being brought to heel, arrested and roughed up.

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It reported that “the Trump administration is investigating whether Harvard’s admissions policies comply with a Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action, opening a new front in its widening effort to bring the institution to heel.”

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Its latest effort to bring the press to heel came on April 25, when news leaked of the Justice Department’s intention to aggressively pursue journalists who receive leaked information from confidential government sources.

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The Trump administration is using federal money—and the withholding thereof—as a way to bring universities like Columbia and Penn to heel.

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Nicolls and his emissaries were to bring the Puritans there to heel, to compel them to put aside recent differences and respect the king and his government.

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to hand to hell and gone

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to heel

Example Sentences