kick one's heels
"kick-one-s-heels" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kick 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; to wait impatiently or restlessly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-kick-one-s-heels · kick one's heels · English
kick one's heels · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "K" 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 | kick 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 “kick one's heels” in English
Rare enough to double-check
kick one's heels is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for kick one's heels in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is kick one's heels, spelled K-I-C-K- -O-N-E-'-S- -H-E-E-L-S.
Definition
- 1To wait; to wait impatiently or restlessly.
- 2Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see kick, heels.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how kick one's heels appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…] whether, in one single instance, any individual has been obliged to kick his heels in the lobby even for one minute, and whether the order was not instantly granted ?
It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company’s office, must expect his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles.
Synonyms
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.