The Wellington boot, also known as galoshes, rubber-boots, wellies, topboots, gumboots, or rainboots are a type of boot based upon leather Hessian boots. It was worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. This novel "Wellington" boot then became a fashionable style emulated by the British aristocracy in the early 19th century. The boot thus became known, in British English, by its proponent: Wellington.

Wellington boots are waterproof and are most often made from PolyVinyl Chloride (PVC) a halogenated polymer. PVC boots are usually worn when walking on wet or muddy ground, or to protect the wearer from heavy showers. They are generally just below knee-high. The "Wellington" in contemporary society is a very common and necessary safety or hygiene shoe for vastly diverse industrial settings: for heavy industry with an integrated reinforced toe; protection from mud and grime in mines, chemical spills in chemical plants to highest standard hygiene requirements from food processing plants, operating theatres and state-of-the-art dust-free clean rooms for electronics manufacture