great toe
English
Etymology
From Middle English grete too. Compare Old English myċle tā (“big toe”, literally “mickle toe”).
Noun
great toe (plural great toes)
- (dated, anatomy) Big toe.
- 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “[The Hunchback’s Tale.] The Reeve’s Tale. [Night 27.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume I, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 279:
- [W]e saw that his thumb had been cut off and he ate with his four fingers only. So we said to him, "Allah upon thee, what happened to thy thumb? Is thy hand thus by the creation of God or hath some accident befallen it?" "O my brothers," he answered, "it is not only thus with this thumb, but also with my other thumb and with both my great toes, as you shall see." So saying he uncovered his left hand and his feet, and we saw that the left hand was even as the right and in like manner that each of his feet lacked its great toe.