Ankle
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The skeletal joint which connects the foot with the leg; the uppermost portion of the foot and lowermost portion of the leg, which contain this skeletal joint.
- 2 a gliding joint between the distal ends of the tibia and fibula and the proximal end of the talus wordnet
- 1 To walk. ambitransitive, slang
"Arvay’s tearful speech followed the usual pattern, and everybody said it was just fine. There had been nothing about the heathens of China, India and Africa wallowing around on the heavenly chairs, nor ankling up and down the golden streets."
- 2 To cyclically angle the foot at the ankle while pedaling, to maximize the amount of work applied to the pedal during each revolution.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I missed a step on the stairs and I'm afraid I sprained my ankle."
Etymology
From Middle English ankel, ancle, ankyll, from Old English ancol (compare anclēow (“ankle”) > Modern English anclef, ancliff, ancley), from Proto-West Germanic *ankul, from Proto-Germanic *ankulaz (“ankle”); akin to Icelandic ökkla, ökli, Danish and Swedish ankel, Dutch enklaauw, enkel, German Enkel, Old Norse akka, Old Frisian anckel, and perhaps Old High German encha, ancha (“thigh, shin”), from the Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“ankle, joint”). Compare with Sanskrit अङ्ग (aṅga, “limb”), अङ्गुरि (aṅguri, “finger”), Latin angulus. Compare haunch and Greek prefix ἀγκυλο- (ankulo-, “joint, crooked, bent”). Doublet of angulus and angle.
Related phrases
More for "ankle"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.