Toe - tow

Beware the confusion possible between the two homophones toe and tow, particularly in such phrases as toe the line. Both are usually pronounced 'toh' (IPA: /təʊ/), although tow may be regionally realized as 'tOW', /taʊ/.

• A toe is the digit of a foot, the equivalent of a finger on a hand. (The big toe is the equivalent of a thumb, and each human foot normally has five toes, as each hand normally has five fingers.)
  • There are various meanings of the verb, 'to toe', which are derived, fairly obviously, from the noun. Amongst these, the most likely to be of use to students are 'to touch [e.g. a line] precisely (as a runner toes the starting line of a race)'; 'to kick' (with the front of the foot); a fairly archaic 'to dance', mostly in the phrase 'to heel and toe [it]'; and the even more archaic 'to mend the front part of a sock, etc'. Other uses are found in various specialized fields.
• 'To tow' means 'to drag along', specially of boats etc in water. Tugs, or tugboats, tow barges on rivers, and help great ships to dock; canals are lined with tow-paths to allow horses, or indeed people, to pull a boat behind them in the water below. Motor vehicles that have broken down may be seen on roads with the sign on tow to show that they are not under their own full control.
  • • Some archaic and/or technical homographs exist: see a good dictionary.
  • As a noun, 'a tow' can mean 'the action of towing': a sailing boat may ask a powerboat for a tow when the wind drops. There are several homographs, principally the non-count noun tow, which means various coarse forms of fibre (e.g., and originally, the shorter fibres of flax, useless for linen) used in various forms for cotton waste (used by mechanics for cleaning), wicks for candles and candlewick - a material, no longer fashionable, with decorative tufts of tow at regular intervals used for bedspreads, dressing-gowns etc.
    • Again, there are various archaic, local and/or technical homographs, notably, in history and literature, with one meaning 'a rope', and specifically ' a rope used to hang a man': see a good dictionary for the others.