One’s entire body; totally. The earliest of these slightly varied expressions is from head to foot, which Homer used in the Iliad, Aristophanes in Plutus, Plautus in several plays, and many others after them. Shakespeare used from top to toe in Hamlet (1.2). The alliterative head to heels, dating from about 1400, was favored by the English poet William Cowper (Anti-Thelypthora, 1781): “So polished and compact from head to heel.” See also stem to stern.