lace-up

[ leys-uhp ]

noun
  1. anything that laces up, especially a boot with shoelaces that lace up from the vamp to the top of the boot.

adjective
  1. having a lace that is laced up as a closure: a lace-up blouse.

Origin of lace-up

1
First recorded in 1830–40; noun and adj. use of verb phrase lace up

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use lace-up in a sentence

  • The heavier lace-up boot came in during the fifties, and a very shaped type of fashion appeared in the sixties.

    Dress design | Talbot Hughes
  • She would have liked to have slipped out of her boots and wriggled her toes but they were too hard to lace up again.

    Janet Hardy in Radio City | Ruthe S. Wheeler
  • He opened the door a little, and pulled in his lace-up boots, which were polished in the highest style of art.

  • I could have cried, I was so vexed; but I determined I would not give the lace up without a struggle for it.

    Cranford | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

British Dictionary definitions for lace up

lace up

verb
  1. (tr, adverb) to tighten or fasten (clothes or footwear) with laces

adjectivelace-up
  1. (of footwear) to be fastened with laces

nounlace-up
  1. a lace-up shoe or boot

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012