cool one's heels
"cool-one-s-heels" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cool one's heels” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To wait, especially impatiently or restlessly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cool-one-s-heels · cool one's heels · English
cool one's heels · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cool one's heels |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cool one's heels” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cool one's heels is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To wait, especially impatiently or restlessly.".
Zero misspellings are on record for cool one's heels in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is cool one's heels, spelled C-O-O-L- -O-N-E-'-S- -H-E-E-L-S.
Definition
- 1To wait, especially impatiently or restlessly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cool one's heels appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I cooled my heels in the cloisters till nine, then went in to the music-meeting.
Remember I say it—he'll cool his heels in a prison, if he's no wiser than of late, before a twel'month.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.