sole

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The underside of the foot.
2. n. The underside of a shoe or boot, often excluding the heel.
3. n. The part on which something else rests while in a vertical position, especially:
4. n. The bottom surface of a plow.
5. n. The bottom surface of the head of a golf club.
6. v. To furnish (a shoe or boot) with a sole.
7. v. To put the sole of (a golf club) on the ground, as in preparing to make a stroke.
8. adj. Being the only one: the sole survivor of the crash.
9. adj. Of or relating to only one individual or group; exclusive: The court has the sole right to decide.
10. adj. Law Single; unmarried.
11. n. Any of various chiefly marine flatfish of the family Soleidae, related to and resembling the flounders, especially any of several European species, such as Solea solea, valued as food fishes.
12. n. Any of various other flatfish, especially certain coastal flounders.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The bottom or under side of the foot; technically, the planta, corresponding to the palm of the hand. The sole of ordinary language does not correspond well with planta, except in the cases of plantigrades. In digitigrades sole usually means only that part of the planta which rests upon the ground in ordinary locomotion, or the balls of the toes collectively; it also applies to the fore as well as the hind feet of such quadrupeds, thus including the corresponding parts of the palma, or palm; while the planta may extend far up the hind leg (only), as to the hock of the horse. In the horse sole is restricted to the under side of the hoof of either fore or hind feet (see def 4 ). In birds the sole of the foot is the under side of the toes taken together. See planta, and cuts under plantigrade, digitigrade, scutelliplantar, and solidungulate.
2. n. The foot.
3. n. That part of a shoe or boot which comes under the sole of the foot, and upon which the wearer treads. In boots and shoes with heels, the term is usually limited to the part that is in front of the heel and of nearly uniform thickness throughout. See half-sole, and cuts under boots and poulaine.
4. n. The part of anything that forms the bottom, and on which it stands upon the ground; the bottom or lower part of anything. In agriculture, the bottom part of a plow, to the fore part of which is attached the point or share.
5. n. A flat surface like the sole of the foot.
6. To furnish with a sole, as a shoe or boot; put a new sole on. Compare half-sole, v. t.
7. n. In ichthyology, a flatfish of the family Solcidæ, and especially of the genus Solea; a soleid or sole-fish. The common sole of Europe is S. vulgaris, formerly Pleuronectes solea. The body is elongate-oval, and has been compared to the form of a human sole; the dorsal and anal fins are very long, but free from the caudal, which has a rounded end, and pectorals are developed on both sides; the mouth is moderately decurved; the nostrils of the blind side are not dilated; and the height of the body is a little less than a third of the total length. The color is a dark brown, with a black spot at the end of the pectoral fin. This sole is common along the European coasts, and is one of the most esteemed of food-flshes. The flesh is white, firm, and of excellent flavor, especially when the fish has been taken in deep water. The average weight is about a pound, although the fish occasionally reaches a much larger size. It prefers sandy or gravelly shores, but retires into deep water when frost sets in, It feeds chiefly upon mollusks, but also on the eggs of fishes and other animals. It sometimes ascends into fresh water. There are other species, of several different genera, as Achirus lineatus, commonly called hog-choker. The name sole is also given to various species of the related family Pleuronectidæ. Along the Californian coast the common sole is a pleuronectoid, Lepidopsetto bilineata, which reaches a length of about 20 inches and a weight of five or six pounds, although its average weight as seen in the markets is about three pounds. In San Francisco only about two per cent. of the flatfishes caught belong to this species, but along Puget Sound it constitutes about thirty per cent, of the catch. It feeds chiefly on crustaceans and small fishes, and is regarded as an excellent food-fish. Other Pleuronectidæ called soles along the Pacific coast of North America are the Parophrys uetulus and Hippoglossoides jordani. See also cuts under Pleuronectidæ and Soleidæ.
8. Only; alone in its kind; being or acting without another; single; unique; individual: as, God is the sole creator and sovereign of the world.
9. Alone; unaccompanied; solitary.
10. Mere.
11. In law, single; unmarried; not having a spouse: as, a feme sole. See feme.
12. Alone; by itself; singly.
13. n. A wooden band or yoke put around the neck of an ox or a cow in a stall.
14. n. A pond.
15. To pull by the ears; pull about; haul; lug.
16. n. Same as sol.
17. n. In golf, the flat, bottom part of a club which rests on the ground.
18. n. The inner cylindrical surface of a water-wheel which forms the bottoms of the buckets on the periphery. See sole-plate, 2.
19. In golf, to place the sole of (a club) on the ground immediately behind the ball in preparing for a shot.
20. n. A name given to various Australian fishes: in Sydney to Synaptura nigra; in Melbourne to Rhombosolea bassensis; in New Zealand to Rhombosolea monopus (called the flounder in Tasmania) and Peltorhamphus novæ-zelandiæ; and in Tasmania to Ammotretis restrains, of the family Pleuronectidæ.

Wiktionary

1. n. A wooden band or yoke put around the neck of an ox or cow in the stall.
2. n. dialectal, Northern England A pond or pool; a dirty pond of standing water.
3. v. transitive To pull by the ears; to pull about; haul; lug.
4. adj. only
5. adj. law unmarried (especially of a woman); widowed.
6. n. The bottom or plantar surface of the foot.
7. n. The bottom of a shoe or boot.
8. n. Solea solea, a flatfish of the family Soleidae.
9. v. transitive to put a sole on (a shoe or boot)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Any one of several species of flatfishes of the genus Solea and allied genera of the family Soleidæ, especially the common European species (Solea vulgaris), which is a valuable food fish.
2. n. Any one of several American flounders somewhat resembling the true sole in form or quality, as the California sole (Lepidopsetta bilineata), the long-finned sole (Glyptocephalus zachirus), and other species.
3. n. The bottom of the foot; hence, also, rarely, the foot itself.
4. n. The bottom of a shoe or boot, or the piece of leather which constitutes the bottom.
5. n. The bottom or lower part of anything, or that on which anything rests in standing.
6. n. (Agric.) The bottom of the body of a plow; -- called also slade; also, the bottom of a furrow.
7. n. (Far.) The horny substance under a horse's foot, which protects the more tender parts.
8. n. (Fort.) The bottom of an embrasure.
9. n. (Naut.) A piece of timber attached to the lower part of the rudder, to make it even with the false keel.
10. n. (Mining) The seat or bottom of a mine; -- applied to horizontal veins or lodes.
11. v. To furnish with a sole.
12. adj. Being or acting without another; single; individual; only.
13. adj. (Law) Single; unmarried.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. lean flesh of any of several flatfish
2. v. put a new sole on
3. n. the underside of footwear or a golf club
4. n. the underside of the foot
5. adj. being the only one; single and isolated from others
6. adj. not divided or shared with others
7. n. right-eyed flatfish; many are valued as food; most common in warm seas especially European