English · Idiom Candidate

snap at someone's heels

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To closely follow or pursue someone

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

theo sát hoặc truy đuổi ai đó chặt chẽ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to bite at someone's ankles

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The new employee was snapping at her boss's heels, trying to take her job

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Legs

Common questions

What does “snap at someone's heels” mean?

To closely follow or pursue someone Literally: to bite at someone's ankles

Is “snap at someone's heels” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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