Meaning & use
plimsoll shoe
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableBritishold-fashioned
A light, flat canvas shoe with a rubber sole, traditionally worn for gym classes and casual summer wear.
Grammar: Often plural because shoes come in pairs: a pair of plimsoll shoes.
Patterns
- a pair of plimsoll shoes
- wear plimsoll shoes
Every pupil had to bring plimsoll shoes for PE.
She packed a pair of white plimsoll shoes for the beach holiday.
My grandfather still wears navy plimsoll shoes in the garden.
Word forms
| plural | plimsoll shoes |
|---|
Common combinations
- a pair of plimsoll shoes
- He bought a pair of plimsoll shoes for gym.
- canvas plimsoll shoes
- Canvas plimsoll shoes are cheap and light.
- white plimsoll shoes
- The team ran out in white plimsoll shoes.
- school plimsoll shoes
- Her school plimsoll shoes were kept in a cloth bag.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- plimsoll noun
- shorter form of the same word
- plimsolls noun
- plural, a pair of these shoes
- Plimsoll line noun
- a mark on a ship's hull, the source of the name
Commonly confused: plimsoll shoe or Plimsoll line?
plimsoll shoe vs Plimsoll line
A Plimsoll line is a safety mark on a ship showing how deep it may sit in the water. The shoe is named after it, but they are unrelated things.
Practice
In Britain, children often wore ___ for gym lessons.
Choose one answer.
Plimsoll shoes are light canvas shoes suited to PE. Wellington boots are waterproof and unsuited to a gym.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “plimsoll shoe”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.