Foot sb. World English Historical Dictionary

Foot sb. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1901, rev. 2022. Foot sb. Pl. feet. Forms: Sing. 1–2 fót, 3–4 fot, south. vot, 3–6 fote, fut, (3 fhote, fott, 5 fowte, foyte), 5–6 fotte, 5–7 foote, (7 foott), 8–9 dial. fit, 3– foot. Sc. 4–7 fute, (4 fut, 6 fuit), 6– fit. Pl. 1–2 fét, fœt, fótas, 2 fiet, (genit. 1 fóta, 3 fote; dat. 1 fótum, 3 foten), 3–5 fet, (3 fett, fite, 4 fyte), 4–5 fete, (4 Sc. feyt, 5 feytt), 5–8 feete, (6 fette, fiete, 7 feeten), 5–6 fotes, (6 footes), 7 (9 in sense 22) foots, 4– feet. [Com. Teut.: OE. fót str. masc. (dat. sing. nom. and acc. pl. fét), corresponds to OFris. fôt, OS. fôt, fuot, (Du. voet), OHG. fuoȝ, (MHG. vuoȝ, mod.Ger. fuss), ON. fótr, (Sw. fot, Da. fod), Goth. fôtus. The OTeut. *fôt (a consonant-stem) represents OAryan *pōd-, which with the ablaut-variants *pēd-, pŏd-, is found with cognate senses in most of the Aryan langs.: cf. Skr. pād (gen. padás) foot, pad to go to, padá neut. footstep; Lith. pėdà footstep; Gr. πούς (Dor. Æol. πώς), gen. ποδός foot, πεζός (:—pedyós) on foot; Lat. pēs, accus. pĕd-em foot; ON. fet str. neut., step, foot as a measure, feta to make one’s way, OE. fæt str. neut., step, OHG. feȝȝan to go; see also FETTER sb. Possibly FET v., FETCH v., FETLOCK may belong to the same root.]

1   1.  The lowest part of the leg beyond the ankle-joint.

2 Beowulf, 745 (Gr.).                    Sona hæfde unlifiȝendes eal ȝefeormod, fet and folma.

3 c. 950.  Lindisfarne Gospels, John xi. 2. Maria … ȝedryȝde his foet mið herum fæx hire.

4 a. 1000.  Phœnix, 311 (Gr.).                    Þæs fuȝles … fealwe fotas.

5 c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 21. And nailed þarto his fet; and his honden.

6 1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 490. He vel of is palefrey, & brec is fot.

7 c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 1766.        William & þe mayde · þat were white beres, gon forþ þurȝth þe gardin · a wel god spede, Fersly on here foure fet · as fel for swiche bestes.

8 1375.  Barbour, Bruce, II. 359.        Knychtis that wycht and hardy war, Wndyr horss feyt defoulyt thair.

9 1434.  Misyn, Mending Life, X. 121. Sayntis feet ar to be waschyd for þai draw duste of þe erth.

10 1538.  Starkey, England, I. ii. 48. The fote to go, and hand to hold and rech.

11 1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., III. ii. 66. If he were open’d and you finde so much blood in his Liuer, as will clog the foote of a flea, Ile eate the rest of th’anatomy.

12 1674.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., II. (1677), 228. Having flown with a Goshawk, Tiercel, Soar, or Haggard till March, give her some good Quarry in her Foot.

13 1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 52. No Spaniard, in ancient or modern history, ever took a regular walk on his own feet—a walk for the sake of mere health, exercise, or pleasure.

14 1851.  Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. vii. 74. A foot has two offices, to bear up and to hold firm.

15 1881.  R. M’Lachlan, in Encycl. Brit., XIII. 144/1. Membranous arolia or plantulæ (much marked in the feet of Diptera, which climb polished surfaces, &c., by means of them).

16   fig.  1570–6.  Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1826), 191. It wanteth not the feete of sound reason to stand upon.

17   † b.  In the oath or exclamation, Christ’s foot, later ’s foot or simply foot. Cf. BLOOD 1 e. Obs.

18 c. 1386.  Chaucer, Miller’s T., 596. Ey, Cristes fote! what wil ye do therwith?

19 c. 1600.  Distr. Emperor, III. i., in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 212. Bus.—Foote, man, let him be ten thousand preists and a will styll want somethynge.

20 1662.  T. W., Thorny Abbey, 13. ’S foot, doe you think we gave him warning.

21   † c.  By some anatomists used for: The whole limb from the hip-joint to the toes. Also, great foot. (Cf. great hand for the whole upper limb.) Obs.

22 1541.  R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., Kiij b. The great fote lasteth fro the ioynt of the hukcle … vnto the ferdest parte of the toes.

23 1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 302. The foot is divided into fĀmur having one bone; the tibia having two sc. tibia and fibula; and the foot extreme.

24   2.  Viewed with regard to its function, as the organ of locomotion. In rhetorical and poetical use often (in sing. or pl.) qualified by adjs. denoting the kind of movement (as swift, slow, stealthy, etc.), or employed as the subject of verbs of motion.

25 c. 1000.  Ags. Ps. xxxv[i]. 12 [11], (Spelm.). Ne cume me fot ofermodiȝnysse.

26 a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xviii. 4. Þe fame of a good man gas ferrere þan his fote may.

27 1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., V. i. 400.        It was the swift celeritie of his death, Which I did thinke, with slower foot came on.

28 1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 843.        From standing lake to tripping ebbe, that stole With soft foot towards the deep.

29 a. 1774.  Fergusson, Poems (1789), II. 107.        O think that eild, wi’ wyly fit, Is wearing nearer bit by bit!

30 1813.  Scott, Trierm., III. xxiv.        Foot of man, till now, hath ne’er Dared to cross the Hall of Fear.

31 1847.  Marryat, Childr. N. Forest, xxi. I was not aware of your presence, Patience. Your foot is so light.

32 1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 28, The Republic, Introduction. Dogs keen of scent and swift of foot to pursue, and strong of limb to fight.

33 1878.  Browning, La Saisiaz, 101.        And that, useful as is Nature to attract the tourist’s foot, Quiet slow sure money-making proves the matter’s very root.

34 Proverb.

35 c. 1300.  Cursor M., 28939 (Cott. Galba). Gangand fote ay getes fode.

36 1670.  Ray, Prov., 262. A walking foot is ay getting.

37   fig.  1607.  Shaks., Cor., IV. vii. 7.        Vnlesse by vsing meanes I lame the foote Of our designe.

38 1633.  Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, N. T., 108. No man can come to mee, but by the foot of a true faith, except my Father which sent me, inlighten his understanding, and powerfully incline his will, and affections thereunto.

39   b.  Hence, a person as walking. Obs. exc. dial. in first foot (see FIRST C. 2); similarly † evil foot, one whom it is unlucky to meet. † Also (rarely) used simply for ‘person.’

40 c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 29. Ðanne ðe cumþ eft sum euel … ne ȝelief ðu naht al swa sume, ðe naure wel ne ȝeliefden, seggeð þat hie imetten euel fot, priest oðer munec.

41 a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 2271.            He het hetterliche, anan wiðuten þe burh, bihefden ham, euch fot.

42 1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., V. iii. 19.        What cursed foot wanders this wayes to night, To crosse my obsequies, and true loues right?

43 1609.  Skene, Reg. Maj., Burrow Lawes, cxxxiv. He … offers his awin fute for his pledge.

44   † 3.  Power of walking or running. Obs.

45 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 20885 (Cott.). Petre … to þe cripels he gaf þam fote.

46 a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 1235.        Alle þe folke of his affinite · at fresch ware vn-wondid, Þat outhire fote had or fole · to þe fliȝt foundid.

47 c. 1450.  Henryson, Parl. Beistis, 32. Ay rinnis the Foxe, als lang as he fute hes.

48 1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xlix. 48.        Ay rynnis the fox   Quhill he fute hais.

49 1737.  H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 123. Notwithstanding Horses may alter as to their Speed or Foot (as ’tis called) yet a slow good-one is what I should not be fond of.

50   4.  ellipt. Foot-soldiers; in early use † men of foot. Cf. FOOTMAN 1. Often immediately following an ordinal, ‘regiment of’ being omitted.

51 1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 245. Foure thousand men of armes, and ix. thousand Archers, besyde men of foote, and all out of Englande.

52 1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 186.        Fifteene hundred Foot, fiue hundred Horse Are march’d vp to my Lord of Lancaster, Against Northumberland, and the Archbishop.

53 1633.  T. Stafford, Pacata Hibernia, x. (1821), 120. The President was a Captaine of Foot.

54 1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 17, ¶ 3. Their Foot repulsed the same Body of Horse in three successive Charges, with great Order and Resolution.

55 1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 296. At the close of the reign of Charles the Second, most of his foot were musketeers.

56 1878.  Trimen, Reg. Brit. Army, 89. It [Forty-Fourth Foot] captured the Eagle of the 62nd French Infantry at Salamanca.

57   5.  a. The end of a bed, a grave, etc., towards which the feet are placed. Formerly often pl., now sing. (cf. sense 19).

58 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17288 + 218 (Cott.).        Þat one at þe fote of þe graf, þat other at the hede.

59 c. 1386.  Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 291.          And up he rose, and softely he went Unto the cradel, and in his hand it hent, And bare it soft unto his beddes fete.

60 c. 1442.  Hoccleve, Min. Poems (1892), 238.        Sire, in a Cofre at my beddes feet yee Shul fynde hem.

61 c. 1710.  C. Fiennes, Diary (1888), 239. There was such another screen or raile at ye ffeete of the bed.

62 1821.  Keats, Isabella, xxxv.        It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,   The dull of midnight, at her couch’s foot Lorenzo stood, and wept.

63 1891.  Law Rep., Weekly Notes, 201/1. His trousers … were hanging over the foot of the bed.

64   b.  The part of a stocking, etc., which covers the foot.

65 1577.  Harrison, England, II. ix. (1877), I. 206. Though he go bare legged by the waie, and carrie his hosen on his necke (to saue their feet from wearing) bicause he hath no change.

66 1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 112. On their legs they sometimes have the Poulaines, which are a sort of knit buskins without feet to them; in short, their appearance bears little or no likeness of the Savage.

67 1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 463/1. Silk [hose] with cotton feet.

68   II.  6. Prosody. [transl. of L. pēs, Gr. πούς; the term is commonly taken to refer to the movement of the foot in beating time.] A division of a verse, consisting of a number of syllables one of which has the ictus or principal stress.

69 c. 1050.  Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 313. Þæt pentimemeris byð þe todælð þæt vers on þam oðrum fet & byð ȝemet healf fot to lafe.

70 1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 147. Iuvencius þe preost wroot þe gospelles to þe chirche of Rome in vers of sixe feet.

71 c. 1560.  B. Googe, Epit. T. Phayre, Poems (Arb.), 72.        That Virgils verse hath greater grace   in forrayne foote obtaynde, Than in his own, who whilst he lyued   eche other Poets staynde.

72 1600.  Shaks., As You Like It, III. ii. 173. Some of them had in them more feete then the Verses would beare.

73 1700.  Dryden, Pref. Fables (Globe), 499. It were an easie Matter to produce some thousands of his Verses, which are lame for want of half a Foot, and sometimes a whole one, and which no Pronunciation can make otherwise.

74 1803.  Coleridge, Metrical Feet, 1.        Trochee trips from long to short; From long to long in solemn sort Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot! yea ill able Ever to come up with dactyl trisyllable.

75 1846.  Wright, Ess. Mid. Ages, I. i. 14. The Saxons did not measure their verse by feet; the only rule we can discover seems to be that, in the common kind of verse, there must be two raisings and two fallings of the voice in each line,—so that it would appear that a verse ought never to consist of less than four syllables.

76   III.  As a unit of measurement.

77   7.  A lineal measure originally based on the length of a man’s foot. (The English foot consists of 12 inches, and is 1/3 of a YARD.) Hence, a measure of surface and of solid space (explicitly square or superficial, cubic or solid foot) equal to the content respectively of a square and a cube the side of which measures one foot.

78   Often in sing. when preceded by numerals.

79 a. 1000.  Laws Æthelstan, iv. 5, in Thorpe, I. 224. .ix. fota & .ix. scæfta munda & .ix. bere-corna.

80 c. 1205.  Lay., 21996.        He is imeten a bræde, fif & twenti foten; fif foten he is deop.

81 1325.  Chron. Eng., 83, in Ritson, Metr. Rom., II. 273.        That fourti fet, roumede and grete, Into the see he made him lepe.

82 1459.  Contract, in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 309. A doore in brede iiij foote standard of fre ston from the base soyle also of freston the heyght of iij foote assise large and upwarde in heyght to the thyrd peynt of the Centre .v. foote more al of breke.

83 1523.  Fitzherb., Surv., 35. Howe many footes euery one of them be in length and brede.

84 1624.  Massinger, Parl. Love, V. i.        And corpse interr’d, upon thy grave I’ll build A room of eight feet square, in which this lady, For punishment of her cruelty, shall die An anchoress.

85 1712.  trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 89. The Indigo Plant grows about two Feet high, with round Leaves.

86 1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 192. Our privateer, it was plain, infinitely outsailed her, running two feet for her one, and towards evening came up with them.

87 1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 87. Every foot of this tract is argillaceous wheat-land: but not an ear of grain is to be seen!

88 1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. vii. 115. There would be a distraint for penalties in almost every cottage, and offenders would be nearly as common as persons who stood above five feet in their shoes.

89 1862.  Ansted, Channel Isl., IV. App. A (ed. 2), 565. The linear Jersey foot is equivalent to only eleven English inches, so that the square foot of Jersey equals twenty and one-sixth square feet English measurement.

90   b.  Used to express ‘the least distance or space,’ with a, one or a negative. † Each foot: all the way.

91 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 7326 (Cott.).        Forth a fote ne moght he ga.     Ibid., 15391 (Cott.). Fra þan he ran him ilk fote,   ne yode he noght þe pas.

92 13[?].  Coer de L., 2361.        He shal not have a fote of lond Never more but of my hond.

93 c. 1435.  Torrent of Portugal, 239.        He durst goo no fote,     Lest they wold hyme sle.

94 1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 23. Ile starue ere I rob a foote further.

95 a. 1800.  Lizie Lindsay, in Child, Ballads, VIII. (1892), 265.        Bonnie Lizie was weary wi’ travelling, And a fit furder couldna win.

96   † c.  Hence Every foot (and anon): incessantly.

97 1561.  P. Morwyng, trans. Compend. Josephus’ Hist. Jews, 56 b. Antipater made feastes euery foote [L. singulis diebus] for thy brother Pheroras and him selfe.

98 1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 243. Such a worke they made sometime in chafing and frying their bodies against a good fire, but euery foot in bringing them abroad into the hot Sunne.

99 1639.  Gentilis, Servita’s Inquis. (1676), 855. For most part of the Inquisitions out of this State are reduced to such a form of proceeding, that the Inquisitors do every foot write to Rome, and from thence receive orders what they shall do.

100 1692.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, cccclviii. 434. This Man’s Son would every foot and anon be taking some of his Companions into the Orchard with him.

101 1784.  Cullum, Hist. Hawsted, 171. Every Foot anon. Every now and then.

102   8.  A measure in tin-mining: (see quot. 1778).

103 1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 13 b. They measure their blacke Tynne, by the Gill, the Tapliffe, the Dish and the Foate.

104 1778.  W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 321/2. Foot. An ancient measure for black Tin, two gallons; now a nominal measure, but in weight 60 lb.

105   9.  A measure in sizing grindstones (see quot.).

106 1844.  M’Culloch, Dict. Commerce, 615. They [grindstones] are classed in eight different sizes, called foots, according to their dimensions…. A grindstone foot is 8 inches: the size is found by adding the diameter and thickness together. Thus, a stone 56 inches diameter by 8 thick, making together 64 inches, is an 8-foot stone, of 8 inches each foot.

107   IV.  Something resembling a foot in function or position.

108   10.  The lower (usually projecting) part of an object, which serves to support it; the base.

109 1382.  Wyclif, Exod. xxvii. 10. Twenti pilers, with so feele brasun feet.

110 c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), ii. 10. Therfore made thei the Foot of the Cros of Cedre.

111 1509.  Fisher, Fun. Serm. Hen. VII., Wks. (1876), 274. He … kyssed not the selfe place where the blessyd body of our lorde was conteyned, but the lowest parte the fote of the monstraunt.

112 1571.  Digges, Pantom., III. xv. S iij b. Admit BCD a piller of an hundred pounde in waight, being of Brasse, Iron, Siluer, or any other Metall, my desire is to knowe the waight of the fote.

113 1611.  Bible, Exod. xxx. 18. Thou shalt also make a Lauer of brasse, and his foote also of brasse, to wash withall.

114 1802.  Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. 214. ‘You have seen this vase before,’ said the king; ‘and you have probably seen the lines, which are inscribed on the foot of it?’

115 1875.  Fortnum, Maiolica, iii. 31. Large heavy dishes of flesh-coloured clay with deep sunk centres and a projecting circular ‘giretto’ behind, forming a foot or base.

116   b.  (See quot. 1892).

117 1869.  Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., vii. 121. The frames behind armour in this part of the ship terminate in a foot at the lower deck, and are secured to the deck plating.

118 1892.  Lockwood, Dict. Mech. Engin., Foot, a base or flange which sustains a casting or structure.

119   11.  a. Zool. Applied to various organs of locomotion or attachment belonging to certain invertebrate animals; in more precise technical language distinguished by special names, as ambulacrum, podium, pseudopodium. etc.

120 1835.  Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. v. 177. The foot, or base by which the common coral is attached to the rocks, as indeed is the case with the whole section to which it belongs, is remarkably expanded.

121 1835–6.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 701/2. In the Conchifera denominated Lamellipeds and Crassipeds by Lamarck, in a word, in the whole of the Conchiferous mollusks in which the foot constitutes a principal part of the body, this organ presents remarkable differences in its composition and its relations with the internal organs.

122 1841–71.  T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 551. The little animal, which is, moreover, possessed of a ‘foot,’ often very long and moveable, by the aid of which it can crawl upon a solid surface as well as swim freely in the water.

123 1852.  Dana, Crust., I. 10. The thorax consists of a series of segments exposed to view and corresponding each to a pair of thoracic feet, which feet are ambulatory or prehensile.

124   b.  Bot. In various uses. The part (of a petal) by which it is attached; the part (of a hair) below the epidermis; also, in ferns, mosses, etc. (see quot. 1882.)

125 1671.  Grew, The Anatomy of Plants, I. v. (1682), 35. The Foot of each Leaf being very long and slender.

126 1882.  Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 427. The foot is an organ by which the embryo attaches itself to the tissue of the prothallium, in order to draw nourishment from it while the first roots and leaves are being formed.

127 1891.  A. Johnstone, Bot., 44. The part within the epidermal surface developing into the foot, and the protruded portion into the body of the hair.

128   12.  Printing. (See quots.)

129 1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., II. 376. Foot of the Letter. The Break-end of the Shanck of a Letter.

130 1888.  J. Southward in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XXIII. 698/1. The groove g divides the bottom of the type into two parts called the feet.

131   13.  The extremity of the leg (of a pair of compasses, a chair, etc.).

132 1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. iii. Set one foote of the compasse in the verye point of the angle, and with the other fote draw a compassed arch from the one lyne of the angle to the other.

133 1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 206. Describe a Circle on the backside of the Board to be turned, by placing one Foot in the prick-mark, and turning about the other Foot.

134 1831.  Brewster, Optics, iii. 25. Place one foot of the compasses in the quadrant N F.

135   14.  Of a plough: (See quots. and PLOUGH-FOOT).

136 1513.  Fitzherbert, The Boke of Husbandry, § 4. Howe-be-it a man maye temper for one thynge in two or thre places, as for depnes. The fote is one.

137 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. viii. 333/2. The Foot, is the piece of Hooked or Bended Wood, at the end of the Plow, under the Suck; which is to keep it from going too deep in the Earth.

138 1846.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VII. 72. At the head of the plough is a foot rut, made of wood, and a wide piece of wood on the end, to prevent the plough going deep; if the foot was not wide, it would cut into the soil.

139   15.  Of an organ pipe (see quots.).

140 1852.  Seidel, Organ, 78. The foot upon which the whole pipe rests; it has the form of an inverted cone.

141 1876.  Hiles, Catech. Organ, iv. (1878), 25–6. The foot [of a wooden organ pipe] is a tube introduced at the bottom of the pipe; it serves as a support, and also as a conductor of the wind into the pipe.

142   16.  In a sewing-machine: The small plate which is pressed on the cloth to hold it steady.

143 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Presser-foot.

144 188[?].  Direct. Singer’s ‘Medium’ Sewing Mach. Adjust the corder-foot to the presser-bar…. In placing each succeeding cord, guide the fabric with the last cord sewed in the second groove of the foot.

145   17.  One of the marginal pieces forming a serrated edge round the carapace of the Hawkbill turtle; otherwise called ‘hoofs’ or ‘claws’; in pl. the commercial name for the small plates of tortoise-shell which line the carapace.

146   V.  The lowest part, bottom.

147   18.  The lowest part or bottom of an eminence, or any object in an erect or sloping position, as a wall, ladder, staircase, etc. Chiefly governed by preps.

148 c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 89. On þe fot of þe dune þe men clepen munt oliuete.

149 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2481 (Cott.).        Vnder þe fote of mont mambre, þar he ches to seit his fee.

150 1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 63. Olympias is þ space of ȝeres of tornementis þat me vsede somtyme at þe foot of þe hille mount Olympus.

151 1497.  Bp. Alcock, Mons Perfect., C iij. The fote therof [the ladder] stode by hym [Jacob] in the sayd mounte.

152 1582.  N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., ii. 6 b. He ouertooke a man, one of the inhabitaunts of the same, who was going to gather honny at the foote of a bush.

153 1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 485.                        And now at foot Of Heav’ns ascent they lift thir Feet.

154 1678.  Trial of Coleman, 44. L. Ch. Just. In what Room? Mr. Bedlow. At the Foot of the Stair-case.

155 1717.  Berkeley, Lett., Wks. 1871, IV. 80. Three or four of us got into a boat, and were set ashore at Torre del Greco, a town situate at the foot of Vesuvius to the south-west, whence we rode four or five miles before we came to the burning river, which was about midnight.

156 1779.  J. Burgoyne, Lett. to Constituents (ed. 3), 15. While uncommon premiums were raised by begging, and distributed to volunteers, the goals, and even the feet of the gallows, were resorted to for other recruits.

157 1815.  Falconer’s Dict. Marine, The Foot of a Mast, is the lower-end, or that which goes into the step.

158 1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. ii. 68. Through a forest of dark pines which gathered like a cloud at the foot of the mountain, gleamed the white minarets of the Glacier des Bossons.

159   b.  The beginning or end of the slope (of a bridge).

160 c. 1450.  Merlin, 227. Here be-fore the yates at the brigge foote.

161 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VI. (an. 28), 160 b. Ye rebelles drave the citezens from the stoulpes at the bridge foote.

162 1739.  Labelye, Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge, p. vi. Westminster-Bridge Foot.

163 c. 1850.  Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 597. They passed this bridge, at the foot of which they met with an old blind man, who was begging.

164   c.  Geom. Fool of the perpendicular: (see quot.).

165 1840.  Lardner, Geom., xii. 147. The point F, where the perpendicular meets the plane, is called the foot of the perpendicular.

166   a.  Naut. (See quot. 1776.)

167 1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. xviii. 495. The Winds therefore bearing very hard, we rolled up the foot of our Sail on a pole fastned to it.

168 1776.  Falconer, Dict. Marine, Foot of a sail, lower edge or bottom.

169 1882.  Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 127. Carry up the foot, laying it on the top of the bunt with the buntline toggles out above the head.

170   19.  The lower end, bottom (of a page or document, a class or list, a table, etc.). At foot: at the bottom (of a page).

171 1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., IV. 142. Look in the Foot of the Table for the fifth Rhomb.

172 1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., II. 377. He claps the Fingers of his Left Hand about the Foot of the Page.

173 1722.  Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ix. 218. At the foot of the page I have in some places subjoind a few little strictures principally of antiquity, after the manner of annotations.

174 1855.  Thorpe, Pref. to Beowulf (1875), 8. In every case which I thought might by others be considered questionable, I have followed the more usual course, of retaining in the text the reading of the manuscript, and placing the proposed correction at foot.

175 1884.  G. Moore, Mummer’s Wife (1887), 223. He was invited to take the foot of the table and help the cold salmon.

176   20.  Law. Foot of a fine (AF. pee, Anglo-Lat. pes): that one of the ‘parts’ of a tripartite indenture recording the particulars of a fine (see FINE sb.1 6 b), which remained with the court, the other two being retained by the parties.

177   When the undivided sheet was placed so that this counterfoil could be read, it was actually at the ‘foot’ of the parchment (the extant ‘feet of fines’ have therefore their indentation at the top); in the other two counterparts the direction of the writing was at right angles to that of the ‘foot.’ The expression pes indenturae ‘foot of the indenture’ also occurs. Horwood’s suggestion, that the term (L. pes) arose from a misinterpretation of AF. pes, pais, ‘peace’ is baseless.

178 [1293.  In Year Bks., 21 & 22 Edw. I. (Rolls), 221. E ke cele fin se leva tel an coram &c. nus vochum le pee de la fin a garrantye.]

179 1581.  Act 23 Eliz., c. 3 § 1. The Concorde, Note and Fote of everye suche Fyne.

180 1876.  Digby, Real Prop., ii. § 8. 93. A document was drawn up, called in later times the foot, chirograph, or indenture of the fine.

181 1895.  Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, I. 198. This ‘final concord’ or ‘fine,’ will be drawn up by the royal clerks and one copy of it, the so-called ‘foot of the fine,’ will remain with the court.

182   21.  What is written at the foot.

183   † a.  The sum or total (of an account). Obs.

184 1480.  Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 154, note. ‘The foote of the deliveree of stuff.’

185 1520.  Churckw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading, 8. In the ffote of the same accompte xjll xiiijs vijd.

186 1623.  Bp. Andrewes, Serm. Nativ., xvi. (1629), 148. So, it signifies to make the foot of an account. We call it the foot, because we write it below at the foot.

187 1692.  Dryden, Cleomenes, IV. i.                  A trifling sum of Misery, New added to the Foot of thy Account.

188 1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 346, ¶ 1. The generous Man, in the ordinary Acceptation, without respect of the Demands of his own Family, will soon find upon the Foot of his Account, that he has sacrificed to Fools, Knaves, Flatterers, or the deservedly Unhappy, all the Opportunities of affording any future Assistance where it ought to be.

189   † b.  The refrain or ‘chorus’ (of a song). To bear a foot: to sing a refrain. Obs.

190 1552.  Huloet, Dittye synger, or he that beareth ye fote of the songe, præsentor [sic].

191 c. 1568.  in Laneham’s Lett. (1871), Preface, p. cxxvii. Here entreth Moros, counterfaiting a vaine gesture and a foolish countenance, Synging the foote of many Songes, as fooles were wont.

192 1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turkes, 777. A souldior … rather houled than sung a dolefull dittie … whereunto his fellows sighing bare a foot.

193 1621.  Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., V ii. 322. So that in praise of him certaine iygs were made which the yong lads vsed to sing vpon festiuall dayes, the foot of them was this;        A thousand, thousand, thousand, we We have a thousand done to death: By one a thousand mangled be, We have a thousand reau’d of breath.

194   22.  (Plural foots). That which sinks to and lies upon the bottom; bottoms, dregs; the refuse in refining oil, etc.; coarse sugar. Cf. foot grease, sugar.

195 1560.  Lett., in Hakluyt, Voy., I. 306. Much of this Waxe had a great foote, and is not so faire waxe as in times past wee haue had. You must cause the foote to bee taken off before you doe weigh it, or else you must seeke to haue a good allowance for it.

196 1644.  Nye, Gunnery, v. (1647), 10–1. Fill up the Barrel with the said earth … afterwards pour a Bucket of clean water upon the earth … then pull out the Taps or Spiggots out of the holes in the vessel, and let the water drop out of that vessel into another … this water when it hath dropped twice, is called water of Foot.

197 1687.  B. Randolph, Archipelago, 91. They have a special regard to preserve the esteem of their oyl, nor will they force a merchant to take any longer than it comes clear, not mixing the bottoms, as in some parts they will, by taking a hollow cane, and putting it to the bottom, by blowing through which they raise the foot of the oyl, so that thick and thin goes together.

198 1770–4.  A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1803), I. 318. He could supply me with the bottoms or foots of oil, and a rich thick South Sea whale oil, at 14d. per gallon.

199 1871.  Daily News, 5 Jan. Lump sugar is 13d. a pound, foots moist 9d.

200 1888.  Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Foots, dregs, sediment. This here cyder ’ont suit me, there’s to much voots in it.

201   VI.  Footing, standing, basis.

202   † 23.  Foothold, standing-ground. Obs.

203 1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 148/1. Their getting foote may be to their owne destruction and confusion.

204 1652.  F. Kirkman, Cleris & Lozia, 113. Hinder new love from getting foot in her heart.

205 1662.  More, Philos. Writ., Pref. Gen. (1712), 19. Considering also how far that Philosophy has already got foot in Christendome.

206   † 24.  The footing, basis, understanding, totality of conditions or arrangements, on which a matter is established; the agreed or understood position or status which a person or thing occupies in relation to another. = FOOTING vbl. sb. 8. Obs.

207 1559.  Jewel, Lett. to Bullinger, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. x. 131. Religion was restored on that foot on which it stood in King Edward’s time.

208 1686.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2116/1. The Salaries of all Officers … are likewise retrenched. The Councils … are to be reduced to the foot they were upon in the Year 1621.

209 1707.  Freind, Peterborow’s Cond. Sp., 6–7. Since he readily join’d and consulted with all that were in Command, after Matters were set upon a new Foot.

210 1735.  Berkeley, Def. Free-think. in Math., Wks. 1871, III. 325. If you defend Sir Isaac’s notions, as delivered in his Principia, it must be on the rigorous foot of rejecting nothing, neither admitting nor casting away infinitely small quantities.

211 1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 305. He [the Viceroy] found he expected to be received on the same Foot with himself.

212 1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 278. Boit … was upon so low a foot, that he went into the country, and taught children to draw.

213 1767.  Franklin, Letter to Cadwallander Evans, 5 May, Wks. 1887, IV. 9–10. I wish all correspondence was on the foot of writing and answering when one can, or when one is disposed to it, without the compulsions of ceremony.

214 1827.  Pollok, Course T., IX. 726.        And bribed injustice thought of being judged, When he should stand on equal foot beside The man he wronged.

215   † b.  On the foot of: on the ground of. Obs.

216 1679.  Penn, Addr. Prot., II. iii. (1692), 83. He laid the Sin of the Jews upon this Foot, viz. That they rejected him, after he had made proof of his Divine Mission by such Extraordinary Works.

217 a. 1797.  Walpole, Mem. Geo. II. (1847), II. viii. 259, note. He once, before Lord Waldegrave, said to the Prince, who excused his own inapplication on the foot of idleness, ‘Sir, yours is not idleness; your brother Edward is idle, but you must not call being asleep all day being idle.’

218   † 25.  Standard rate of calculation or valuation. Under foot: below standard value. Obs.

219 1588.  J. Mellis, Briefe Instr., F viij b. Vse one Foote or Standerd of money in your accompt in your Leager.

220 1594.  Death of Usurie, 12. The man beeing driuen to distresse, sels his corne farre vnder foote.

221 1645.  Quarles, Sol. Recant., I. 44. Not deem’d a pen’worth under foot.

222 1691.  Locke, Lower. Interest, Wks. 1727, II. 80. He must pay twenty per Cent. more for all the Commodities he buys with the Money of the new Foot.

223 1726.  Berkeley, in Fraser, Life, iv. (1871), 137. I know money is at present on a very high foot of exchange.

224 1734.  trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. I. iv. 195. The disparity between the ancient and modern measures, which it is hard to estimate on a fixed and certain foot.

225   VII.  Phrases.

226   26.  a. † To catch or have by the foot: to catch as in a trap; to hold fast, keep from flying, † To give (a person) a foot: to trip (him) up. To have one foot in the grave: to be near death.

227 1550.  Latimer, Serm., Fruitf. Serm. (1571), 90 b. Is it lawfull to giue Cæsar tribute money, or no? This was their question that they would haue snarled him with. In answering them to this they would haue caught him by the foote.

228 1632.  Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, I. ii.        And, though old age, when one foot’s in the grave, In many, when all humours else are spent, Feeds no affection in them, but desire To add height to the mountain of their riches, In me it is not so.

229 1643.  Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., I. 52. Peace thus established; this conference ended, and the Kings Oath received, the English Armies disband themselves, as dreaming they had now good fortune by the foote, and hoping the greatest stormes of their dangers were past; which presently proved but a vaine surmise.

230 1767.  H. Brooke, Fool of Qual., V. 15. Harry, giving him a slight foot, laid him on the broad of his back in the middle of his own floor; but kept him with both hands from being hurt against the ground.

231 1886.  J. Payn, Luck of the Darrells, xv. ‘He has twenty thousand a year,’ said the Colonel in a tone which unconsciously conveyed a reproof. ‘And one foot in his grave,’ observed Hester with a shiver.

232   b.  In adv. phr.: † Feet against (or to) feet, said with reference to the Antipodes. Foot to foot: with one’s foot against an opponent’s; in close combat. † (To come in) foot and hand: stepping forward and dealing a blow at the same time. Feet first: see FIRST a. 3 b. (With one’s) feet foremost: lit., hence also ‘as a corpse.’

233 c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), xvii. 182. Als wel as wee and thei that dwellyn under us, ben feet azenst feet.

234 1553.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 347. That the Spanyardes haue sayled to the Antipodes (that is) such as go fiete to fiete ageynst us vs, and inhabite the inferiour hemispherie or halfe globe of the earthe, contrarie to th[e] oppinion of the owlde writers.

235 1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 241. Falst. Began to giue me ground: but I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and with a thought, seuen of the eleuen I pay’d.

236 1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks, 879. The great ordinance first on both sides discharged; diuers of the gallies grapled fast togither, in such sort, as that they encountred one another, not with their missiue weapons onely (as with their small shot, arrowes, and darts) but with their drawne swords foot to foot.

237 1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. vii. 67.                            Wee Haue vs’d to conquer standing on the earth, And fighting foot to foot.

238 1737.  Ozell, Rabelais, II. 27, note. They never enter St. Denys but with their Feet foremost.

239 1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 384. The chant and the feed and the ceremony all completed, Hans, Morton and myself crawled feet-foremost into our buffalo-bag.

240 1860.  Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveller, in All the Year Round, No. 65, 21 July, 350/1. A very curious disease the Dry Rot in men, and difficult to detect the beginning of. It had carried Horace Kinch inside the wall of the old King’s Bench prison, and it had carried him out with his feet foremost.

241   c.  To find or know the length of (a person’s) foot: to discover or know his weaknesses, so as to be able to manage him. To measure another man’s foot by one’s own last: to measure others by one’s own standard, to judge others by oneself.

242 1580.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 290. You shal not know the length of my foote, vntill by your cunning you get commendation.

243 1598.  R. Bernard, trans. Terence, 70. He measures an other mans foote by his owne last.

244 a. 1617.  Bayne, On Eph. i. 15 (1647), 156. Yea, I would many of the Lords children, through selfe-love, did not love too well persons who can humour them, and finde the length of their foote, better then such who shew more conscience of obeying God.

245 1861.  Trollope, Barchester T., xxxv. This was Farmer Greenacre’s eldest son; who, to tell the truth, had from his earliest years taken the exact measure of Miss Thorne’s foot.

246   27.  With reference to standing. (To be, jump up) upon or (to raise) to one’s feet: in, into or to a standing position. To be on one’s feet: to be able to stand; hence, in health. To set (a person) on his feet, to make his position or means of living secure. To carry (a person) off his feet: (fig.) to ‘carry away’ with enthusiasm, or the like. To drop or fall on one’s feet: see FALL v. 64 h. To keep one’s feet: to stand or walk upright or without falling. † To stand upon one’s own feet or its own foot: to rely on one’s own resources; (of a thing) to be judged on its merits.

247 c. 1440.  Generydes, 43.        An hert was fownde among the holtys hye, And vppe vppon his fete he was a non; The houndys went after with a mery crye, The kyng rode after all hym self alone.

248 c. 1500.  Melusine, xxiii. 156. Make here byfore me the feste as that I were now on my feet.

249 1657.  Burton’s Diary (1828), II. 67. I move … that you would leave Serjeant Dendy’s right to stand upon its own foot.

250 1801.  Gabrielli, Myst. Husb., IV. 146. A sixth [hundred pounds] would set her once more upon her feet.

251 1845.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 26. The bishops sprang from their seats, and hastened to raise the king to his feet.

252 1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 301. He could not keep his feet in a breeze.

253 1889.  C. Smith, The Repentance of Paul Wentworth, III. 145. He positively carried me off my feet for a few minutes that evening, and I thought my days for enthusiasm were over.

254   28.  With reference to placing the feet. To put one’s foot down: to take up a firm position. To put (set) one’s foot (down) upon: to have nothing to do with; to repress firmly. To put a foot upon: ? to get an unfair advantage of, to wrong. To put one’s foot in or into it: to get into difficulties or trouble; to blunder (colloq.). † To set one’s foot by or to (another or another’s): to engage in combat with.

255 1536.  St. Papers Hen. VIII., I. 506. No man can or dare set his fote by ours in proving of the contrary.

256 c. 1609.  Hieron, Wks. (1624), I. 7. Hee [Saint Paul] once bare his head as high as the best, and I warrant you would not haue feared for profession of Religion, to set his foot to him that was holiest.

257 1663.  Pepys, Diary, 23 May. I had a fray with Sir J. Minnes in defence of my Will in a business where the old Coxcomb would have put a foot upon him.

258 1798.  Gent. Mag., in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799), II. 57. Murmurs, in another part of the crowd, here seemed to indicate as if the General had put his foot into it again.

259 1823.  ‘Bee,’ Slang, s.v. ‘To put one’s foot in it,’ to make a blunder on the wrong side; to get into a scrape by speaking.

260 1833.  Marryat, P. Simple, xii. The first time that I put my foot on shore was at Minorea, and then I put my foot into it (as we say), for I was nearly killed for a heretic, and only saved by proving myself a true Catholic, which proves that religion is a great comfort in distress.

261 1868.  J. H. Blunt, Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 65. Wolsey set his foot upon this plan.

262 1886.  J. Payn, Luck of the Darrells, xxvi. She was not only, however, the prevailing genius of the feast, with power to quell disturbances and to put her foot down, as we have seen, upon the least symptoms of an unpleasantry, but she had the sagacity to perceive them while they were as yet in the air.

263   b.  To set or put (one’s) foot at, in, into, † off, on, † out of (a place).

264 c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, ix. 222. I shall never sette foote there.

265 1543.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 46. It was a foule shame for a phylosophier to sette his foote into any hous where bawderie wer kepte.

266 1548.  Hall, Chron., Edw. IV. (an 15), 237 b. Whom if you permitte once to set but one foote, out of your power … there is no mortall creature able … to deliver hym from death.

267 1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 251/2. We may take order for sins which haue set in foote.

268 1596.  Spenser, State Irel., 81. In some places of the same they have put foote.

269 1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. ii. 95. When I from France set foot at Rauenspurgh.

270 1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. vi. I was never to set my foot off this island.

271 1838.  Lytton, Leila, I. v. Since first thou didst set foot within the city.

272 1875.  T. W. Higginson, U. S. Hist., v. 38. Columbus was not the first to set foot on the mainland.

273   29.  With reference to walking or running. a. (To go) on one’s own feet or † foot: walking. To pull foot (colloq.): to run away, be off. † On the foot of: ready to start upon. † To set foot forward: to advance; also to quicken one’s pace. † To set on one’s foot: to start on the way; depart. † To show the feet: to depart. † Give me your foot: let me see you go. To lake one’s foot in one’s hand: to depart; also, to make a journey. To take to one’s feet (or † foot): to use the feet, go on foot, to walk as opposed to ‘ride.’ (Mr.) Foot’s horse (jocularly): one’s feet.

274 a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 3247. Quen fortune foundis him fra and him þe fete schewis.

275 1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxi. 11.         Oft Falsett rydis with ane rowt, Quhen Trewth gois on his fute abowt.

276 1508.  Kennedy, Flyting w. Dunbar, 473. Throu Ingland thef, and tak the to thy fute.

277 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. IV. (an. 1), 18. He solemply made neuer set fote forward duryng the first .ij. monethes, for the reisyng of the siege or reskewe of the castel.

278 1575.  J. Still, Gamm. Gurton, IV. ii.        Go softly, make no noyse, giue me your foote sir John, Here will I waite vpon you, tyl you come out anone.

279 1600.  Holland, Livy, III. xxvii. (1609), 106. Willing them to set foot forward, to mend their pace & make speed, that by night time they might reach to their enemies.

280 1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 332.          Cai.  Set on your foote, And with a heart new-fir’d, I follow you, To do I know not what: but it sufficeth That Brutus leads me on.     Ibid. (1605), Macb., II. iii. 131.   Donal.          Let’s away, Our Teares are not yet brew’d.   Mat.  Nor our strong Sorrow Vpon the foot of Motion.

281 1755.  Smollett, Don Quix., IV. iv. I. 232. Andrew accepted of the bread and cheese, and seeing that no body offerend him any thing else, made his bows, and as the saying is, took his foot in his hand.

282 1779.  Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 19 June. Miss Thrale sent one of the men after him, and he was seized to be punished. The poor creature’s cries were so dreadful that I took to my feet and ran away.

283 1818.  M. G. Lewis, Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834), 109. One of my ladies chose to pull foot, and did not return from her hiding-place in the mountains till this morning.

284 1864.  J. H. Burton, Cairngorm, 5. I offer these fugitive pages as an inducement to the rambler to shake himself free of guidance, by endeavouring to describe to him a specimen of the kind of scenes he may alight on if he ‘take his feet in his hands,’ as an old saying goes, and independently step out of the range of the established tours.

285 1883.  W. C. Conant, The Brooklyn Bridge, in Harper’s Mag., LXVI. May, 946/1. The cities will probably decide, confining the tolls to vehicular traffic, not to charge him the one cent. first proposed for the privilege of taking this trip on ‘foot’s horse.’

286   b.  With reference to ‘pace.’ To have leaden feet: to move very slowly. To have the foot of: to be more speedy than. (To move) at a foot’s pace: at walking pace. To run a good, etc., foot (of a horse): to run at a good pace, run at his best pace. To put (or set) the (or one’s) best foot first, foremost or forward: see BEST a. 5. † The better foot before: at one’s best pace. † To put the wrong foot before: to make a blunder.

287 1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 192.          Aron.  Come on my Lords, the better foote before, Straight will I bring you to the lothsome pit.

288 1589.  R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 4. To admonish thee, that thou putst the wrong foote before, and therefore pull backe.

289 1601.  Dent, Pathw. Heaven, 141. Though God haue leaden feet, and commeth slowly to execute wrath, yet hath hee an iron hand, and will strike deadly when hee commeth.

290 a. 1613.  Overbury, A Wife (1638), 164. Let him bee neuer so well made, yet his legges are not matches, for hee is still setting the best foote forward.

291 1737.  H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 123. So that what I would chuse, should be a large, nimble, strong, well-moving Horse, that would run a pretty good Foot when out of Condition.

292 1785.  Burns, To Davie, xi.        And then he’ll hilch, and stilt, an’ jimp,   And rin an unco fit.

293 1818.  M. G. Lewis, Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834), 362. Thus we proceeded crawling along at a foot’s pace for five eternal miles.

294 1849.  E. E. Napier, Excurs. S. Africa, II. xix. 373. We had to put our best foot foremost.

295 1856.  Lever, Martin’s of Cro’ M., 133. I threw out a ‘tenpenny’ in the midst. The ‘blind’ fellow saw it first, but the ‘lame cripple’ had the foot of him, and got the money!

296   c.  With the sense of ‘step.’ To miss one’s foot: to take a wrong step. † Foot by (for, with) foot: step by step, gradually; keeping step together; also fig. To change foot or feet: see CHANGE v. 9. To have a good foot on the floor (Sc.): ‘to dance well’ (Jam.).

297 c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 143/1300. Send with us fot with fot ane legat in-to Englelonde.

298 c. 1430.  Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, IV. lxi. (1869), 205. Þe olde also foot bi foot comen þider.

299 1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 378.        Without oppressioun that tyme of the puir, And fit for fit to Forfar all tha fuir.

300 1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 347/1. Hee that walketh with a straight foote, in simplenesse and singlenesse of heart, will not fetch many windlesses to drawne neere to God.

301 1626.  A. Cook in Abp. Usher’s Lett. (1686), 373. Your Lordship had need now to do something; for few go with a right foot, and the Enemies are many.

302 1631.  Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 216. Anselme … followed his predecessors steps almost foot by foot.

303 1785.  Burns, Halloween, xxvi. She jumpet, But mist a fit, an’ in the pool Out-owre the lugs she plumpet.

304   30.  Expressing position relatively to the feet. a. At (a person’s) feet or † foot: low on the ground close to him; also, fig., in the attitude of supplication, homage, subjection or discipleship; similarly to come, etc., to a person’s feet; before, beside one’s feet, etc. See FALL v. 20.

305 c. 950.  Lindisfarne Gospels, Luke vii. 38. And stod bihianda æt fotum his mið tæherum.

306 c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 101. Ða ileaffullen brohton heore gersum and leiden heo et þere apostlan fotan.

307 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 9599 (Cott.). Be-for þe king fote sco stode.

308 1382.  Wyclif, Acts xxii. 3. I a man Jew, born at Tarse of Cilicie, norischid forsoth in this citie bisydis the feet of Gamaliel.

309 c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xxvi. 550. Whan Reynawde herde the debonairte & kynde wordes of the kynge, he cast hymself to the fete of hym.

310 1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 92. I would my daughter were dead at my foot.

311 1710.  Berkeley, Princ. Hum. Knowl., Ded. Wks. 1871, I. 133. These considerations determined me to lay this treatise at your lordship’s feet.

312 1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, XXIII. 27.        Behold! Achilles’ Promise is compleat; The bloody Hector stretch’d before thy Feet.

313 1814.  Scott, Drama (1874), 203. The ruder amusements of the age lost their attractions; and the royal bear-ward of Queen Elizabeth lodged a formal complaint at the feet of her majesty, that the play-houses had seduced the audience from his periodical bear-baitings!

314 1861.  Trollope, Barchester T., xxvii. It was all very well to have Mr. Slope at her feet, to show her power by making an utter fool of a clergyman.

315 1895.  Bookman, IX. Oct., 23/1. In the closing years of the seventeenth century Louis showed that he had not altogether forgotten the lessons that he had learnt at the feet of Mazarin.

316   b.  † (To follow) at or to foot: closely. † To foot and hand: in close attendance, ready to render service (cf. ‘to wait upon one hand and foot’). With a foal at (her) foot: said of a mare.

317 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 24031 (Cott.).        We folud þaim to fote.     Ibid., 6393 (Gött.). Þar had þai watir in wildernes land, Plente for men, to fhote and hand.

318 c. 1420.  Sir Amadace (Camden), lviii.        Butte, alle my men, I ȝo cummawunde, To serue him wele to fote and honde, Ryȝte as ȝe wold do me.

319 1602.  Shaks., Ham., IV. iii. 56.          King.  Follow him at foote, Tempt him with speede abord, Delay it not, Ile haue him hence to night.

320 1612.  Sir R. Boyle, in Lismore Papers (1886), I. 10. Xiij mares, whereof 5 of them had horse colte at their feet.

321 1884.  West. Morn. News, 30 Aug., 1/6. Two excellent brood mares, with foals at foot.

322   c.  Under or beneath a person’s foot or feet: fig. in subjection to him, at his mercy or at his absolute disposal. Cf. 33.

323 c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, viii. 8 [6]. All ðu underdeodes under fotum his scep & oxan.

324 c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 129. Ðet is al eorðlic þing ure drihten dude under his fotan.

325 a. 1225.  Juliana, 60. Þu … wurpe under hare fet hare fan alle.

326 1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. i. 61.        This Percie was the man, neerest my Soule, Who, like a Brother, toyl’d in my Affaires, And layd his Loue and Life vnder my foot.

327 1867.  Trollope, Chron. Barset, III. vii. Though Mr. Crawley was now but a broken reed, and was beneath his feet, yet Mr. Thumble acknowledged to himself that he could not hold his own in debate with this broken reed.

328   31.  (To sell corn) on the foot: ‘to sell it along with the straw before it is thrashed off’ (Jam.).

329 1780.  A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 330. The value sold on the foot is in general 8l. and the crop is calculated that a gallon of seed produces a stone of scutched flax, or 40 stone per acre.

330 1812.  P. Graham, Agric. Surv. Stirlingshire, iv. 104. It is a general clause of leases, that the tenant shall not sell his victual upon the foot, as it is called, or with the straw; a very necessary regulation, by which the whole straw is preserved upon the farm, and restored to the land in the form of manure.

331   32.  On foot. (See also AFOOT.) a. On one’s own feet, walking or running, in opposition to on horseback, etc. † Also, of, upon foot.

332 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6267 (Cott.).        He folud wit ost on hors and fote, For noght caitiue was him na bote.

333 a. 1310.  in Wright’s, Lyric P., xxxi. 90. The is bettere on fote gon, then wycked hors to ryde.

334 c. 1314.  Guy Warw. (A.), 2397. When Gij seye the douke of fot.

335 c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 356. So faire freikes vppon fote was ferly to se.

336 1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 238. The Englishmen, they drewe them into the field, and made three battayles on foote.

337 1667.  Milton, P. L., II. 940.        Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying.

338 1860.  Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., iv. I drove up to the entrance (fearful of being late, or I should have come on foot), and found myself in a large crowd of people who, I am happy to state, were put into excellennt spirits by my arrival.

339   b.  In motion, stirring, astir (in opposition to sitting still, or the like).

340 1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 679.        And when thou hast on foote the purblind hare, Mark the poore wretch to ouer-shut his troubles, How he outruns the wind, and with what care, He crankes and crosses with a thousand doubles.     Ibid. (1607), Cor., IV. iii. 49. The Centurions, and their charges distinctly billetted already in th’entertainment, and to be on foot at an houres warning.

341 1674.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (1677), 99. When the Hare is started and on foot, then step in where you saw her pass, and hallow in your Hounds until they have all undertaken it and go on with it in full cry.

342 1818.  M. G. Lewis, Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834), 161. As every body in Jamaica is on foot by six in the morning, at ten in the evening we were quite ready to go to bed.

343 1885.  T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, ix. 280. Though I got very close up to my game [elk], they were on foot before I saw them, and I did not get a standing shot.

344   c.  In active existence, employment, or operation.

345 1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, V. ii. 757.        Yet since loues argument was first on foote, Let not the cloud of sorrow iustle it.

346 1651.  W. G., trans. Cowel’s Inst., 190. Unlesse the lease which is on foot [if there by any] be within three yeares of expiring.

347 1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 262, 31 Dec., ¶ 6. This is said to have been the first Design of those Gentlemen who set on Foot the Royal Society; and had then a very good Effect, as it turned many of the greatest Genius’s of that Age to the Disquisitions of natural Knowledge, who, if they had engaged in Politicks with the same Parts and Application, might have set their Country in a Flame.

348 1779.  Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 283. Nothing seems to me more wild, and ridiculously unsystematical, than the subscriptions now on foot.

349 1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 212. Terms for years, which are kept on foot by purchasers for the purpose of protecting the inheritance, are not barred by fine.

350 1862.  Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const. xvii. 264. If, then, a King were to retain the troops on foot without a Mutiny Bill, and to levy the revenue not voted by Parliament.

351 1867.  Trollope, Chron. Barset, xlvii. When therefore it became known that the bishop had decided to put on foot another investigation, with the view of bringing Mr. Crawley’s conduct under ecclesiastical condemnation, almost everybody accused the bishop of persecution.

352   33.  Under foot. (Sometimes written as one word.) a. Beneath one’s feet; often to trample or tread under foot (also † feet), in lit. sense, also fig. to oppress, outrage, contemn. † To bring, have under foot: to bring into, hold in subjection. † To cast under foot: to ruin.

353 c. 1205.  Lay., 11693.        For þis lond wes þa swiðe god, & he hit hæfde al vnder fot.

354 c. 1305.  Pilate, 49, in E. E. P. (1862), 112. If he þat lond chasteþ wel: and bringeþ vnder fote.

355 c. 1420.  Hoccleve, Compl., 13. Deathe vnder fote shall hym thrist adowne.

356 1551.  Robinson, trans. More’s Utop. (Arb.), 161. There can be no ieopardie of domisticall dissention, whiche alone hathe caste vnder foote and brought to noughte the well for[i]fied and stronglie defenced wealthe and riches of many cities.

357 1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., V. i. 208.          Old Clif.  And from thy Burgonet Ile rend thy Beare, And tread it vnder foot with all contempt.

358 1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. § 12. His Affection to the Church so notorious, that he never deserted it, till both It and He were over-run, and trod under foot.

359 1652.  Wright, trans. Camus’ Nature’s Paradox, 260. They trampled under feet all private considerations.

360 1700.  S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 308. If the Cingulayans that rid them [elephants] had not prevented them with their Instruments, they would have trampl’d us under foot.

361 Mod. colloq. It is not raining, but it is very wet under foot.

362   b.  Naut. ‘Under the ship’s bottom; said of an anchor which is dropped while she has headway’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word.-bk.); also of the movement of the tide, etc. Also, † to have a good, etc., ship under foot (i.e., to be sailing in such a ship).

363 1633.  T. James, Voy., 79. This Cable had laine slacke vnder-foot, and vnder the Ice, all the Winter: and wee could neuer haue a cleere slatch from Ice, to haue it vp, before now.

364 1670.  Wood, in W. Hacke, Collect. Orig. Voy., III. (1699), 61. I observed that the Tide in this Harbour ran very strong, and therefore it must consequently be a bad Port in Winter when the Ice comes down the River, which is narrow, and a Storm blows at West, which is very common, and a Tide of Ebb under Foot, besides the Inconveniency of the Scarcity of Wood.

365 1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (1840), I. x. 166. The wind also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it, running cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or eddy under foot.

366 1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 321. I had a pretty good ship under foot, though she made but a poor figure.

367 1804.  Capt. G. Duff, in Naval Chron., XV. 281. We have a cold blowing day, and it looks like a gale of wind. However, we have a good comfortable ship under foot.

368 1860.  Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 180. Immediately [the pilot] dropped the port anchor under foot, but it was of no avail.

369   VIII.  attrib. and Comb.

370   34.  a. simple attrib., as foot-clamper, -gear, -muscle, -part, -shackle, -wear, -wound.

371 1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxii. 273. They were well provided with pointed staves, *foot-clampers, and other apparatus for climbing ice; but, from all they tell me, any attempt to scale this stupendous glacial mass would have been madness.

372 1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. viii. Their *foot-gear testified no higher than the ankle to the muddy pilgrimage these good people found themselves engaged in.

373 1854.  Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 250. The fibres of the *foot-muscles pass chiefly to the byssus.

374 1644.  Evelyn, Diary 19 Nov. The nave, or body, is in form of a cross, whereof the *foot-part is the longest.

375 1848.  Craig, *Foot-shackles, fetters, shackles for fixing the feet.

376 1881.  Chicago Times, 11 June. If values were based upon present quotations of leather, an advance would be necessary upon several descriptions of *foot-wear.

377 a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 194. Vlesches fondunge mei beon iefned to *uot wunde.

378   b.  In the sense of ‘on foot,’ ‘going on foot,’ as † foot-chapman, -comer, -excursion, -farer, † -fight, -hawker, † -messenger, -party, -passenger, -people, -robber, -servant, tour, -traveler, -walker, -wandering; foot-faring, -running adjs.

379 1584.  Burgh Rec. Aberdeen (Spalding Club), II. 54. That no extranear *fut chopmane copair resort to this toun fra this furtht.

380 1811.  Coleridge, in Southey’s Life Bell (1844), II. 645. The entrance, which is under a short passage from Fetter Lane, some thirty doors or more from Fleet Street, is disagreeable even to *foot-comers, and far more so to carriages, from the narrowness and bendings of the lane.

381 1796.  T. Twining, Trav. Amer. (1894), 148. They said he was absent with some friends on a *foot excursion, and that the time of his return was uncertain.

382 1861.  G. Meredith, E. Harrington, I. vi. 95. Awhile he enjoyed the contrast, dividing his attention between the *footfarer and moon.

383 1868.  G. Macdonald, R. Falconer, I. 190. The wind was blowing up the street before it half a dozen *footfaring students from Aberdeen, on their way home at the close of the session, probably to the farm-labours of the spring.

384 1580.  Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 171. So began our *foot-fight in such sort that we were well entred to blood of both sides.

385 1884.  S. Dowell, Taxes in Eng., III. 38. The revenue from the *foot-hawkers’ licenses, about 30,000l. per annum, was collected with considerable difficulty.

386 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 60/1. *Foot Messengers of Arms, are such *Foot Servants, as are imployed by the Heralds of Arms for the expedition of their bussiness.

387 1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xx. 252. The ice had baffled three organized *foot-parties.

388 1832.  Babbage, Econ. Manuf., iv. (ed. 3), 34. It sometimes happens that when *foot-passengers are knocked down by carriages, the wheels pass over them with scarcely any injury, though, if the weight of the carriage had rested on their body, even for a few seconds, it would have crushed them to death.

389 1807.  Pike, Sources Mississ., II. (1810), 114. I determined to remain the day, as my Indians and *foot people were yet in the rear, and they had complained to me of being without shoes, leggins, &c.

390 1754.  Scoundrel’s Dict., 29. The Low-Pad, or *Foot-robber.

391 1865.  Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. i. 62. He talks as if he knew Latin; and what business has a *foot-running slave to do that?

392 1883.  F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, iii. 37. He was going away on his customary *foot tour for a month or so.

393 1805.  Wordsw., Prelude (1850), 152.                            Taking leave Of this glad throng, *foot-travellers side by side, Measuring our steps in quiet, we pursued Our journey.

394 1751.  Hume, Princ. Morals, iv. 71, note. Amongst *Foot-walkers, the Right-hand entitles a Man to the Wall, and prevents jostling, which peaceable People find very disagreeable and inconvenient.

395 1839.  Bailey, Festus, V. (1852), 62.        The fastings, the *footwanderings, and the preachings Of Christ and His first followers.

396   c.  esp. in sense ‘of or pertaining to infantry,’ as † foot-arms, † -band, -barracks, -company, -drill, † -officer, -soldier, † -troop. Also FOOT-FOLK, -GUARDS.

397 1662.  Protests Lords, I. 26. A statute made in 4 and 5 Philip and Mary, for assessing all persons therein mentioned for horse, arms, and *foot-arms.

398 1598.  Barret, Theor. Warres, II. i. 26. A Captaine of Infanterie, or *foot-band, should haue in him all the parts (before rehearsed) of a perfect souldier.

399 1835.  D. Booth, Analyt. Dict., 157. Barracks are each under the superintendence of a Barracks-master, and are separated into Artillery-barracks, Horse-barracks, and *Foot-barracks.

400 1635.  Barriffe, Mil. Discip., lxvii. (1643), 178. I run through the severall motions and grounds, for the disciplining of a *foot company.

401 1833.  Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 43. ‘Attention.’ The position of the man as in *Foot-drill, but holding the left bridoon rein near the ring of the bit, with the right hand raised as high as the man’s shoulder.

402 a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XVI. § 96. [Monk] had the reputation of a very good *Foot-Officer in the Lord Vere’s Regiment in Holland.

403 1622.  Drayton, Poly-olb., xxix. 155.        Seauen Earles, nine hundred Horse, and of *Foot-souldiers more, Neere twenty thousand slaine, so that the Scottish gore Ranne downe the Hill in streames.

404 1874.  Boutell, Arms & Arm., viii. 133. This arose, we may assert with confidence, from the treatment (so different from that which was experienced by the French foot-soldier) shown to the foot-soldier of England by the nobles and knights of his nation.

405 1579.  Fenton, Guicciard. (1618), 271. The French beginning now to issue and ascend, discouered the *foot-troopes of the Genoways, who being ascended to the mountain by that side of the litle hill that leades to the bastillion.

406   d.  In sense ‘for the use of persons going on foot,’ ‘serving for foot-traffic,’ as foot-passage, -pavement, -road, -track, -walk; also, foot-boat, -bridge in 35 below, and FOOT-PATH, -WAY.

407 1789.  Brand, Hist. Newcastle, I. 15–6. Convenient *foot-passages have lately been opened out on each side of this gate communicating with Northumberland-Street.

408 1791.  Boswell, Johnson, II. 528. When he had got down on the *foot-pavement, he called out, ‘Fare you well’; and without looking back, sprung away with a kind of pathetick briskness, if I may use that expression, which seemed to indicate a struggle to conceal uneasiness, and impressed me with a foreboding of our long, long separation.

409 1863.  Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. xiv. 276. Numbers of spectators, including many women, crowded the foot-pavement.

410 1784.  Bage, Barham D., I. 220. A villager, who has the reputation of possessing two good eyes, saw a well dressed young woman, before day-break that very morning, take the *foot road down to the river side.

411 1891.  C. T. C. James, Rom. Rigmarole, 125. I thought I would … quit the beaten *foot-track, and strike boldly across country.

412 1837.  Hawthorne, Twice-Told T. (1851), I. ix. 166. Next, leaving him to sidle along the *foot-walk, cast your eyes in the opposite direction, where a portly female, considerably in the wane of life, with a prayer-book in her hand, is proceeding to yonder church.

413   e.  In the names of various appliances worked by the foot, as foot-bellows, blower, -drill, -hammer, -lathe, -lever, -press, -vise.

414 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 901/2. *Foot-bellows. A form of bellows with a collapsible bag, or an ordinary bellows arranged to be worked by treadle.

415 1884.  W. A. Ross, Blowpipe, 1. A *Foot-blower, from which the blast is created by air-pressure, caused by repeated strokes of a pair of bellows filling an elastic air-reservoir.

416 1892.  Lockwood, Dict. Mech. Engin. (ed. 2), *Foot-drill, a light drilling machine driven by a treadle.

417 1812–6.  J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, I. 58. It is not customary, in *foot lathes for general purposes, to make the centre of the collars more than eight or nine inches above the bed.

418 1892.  Lockwood, Dict. Mech. Engin. (ed. 2), *Foot Lever, a lever worked by the pressure of the foot alone.

419   f.  objective, etc., as foot-binder, -kisser, -swather, -washer, -wiper; foot-failing, -firm, adjs.; instrumental, as † foot-tempered adj.; locative, etc., as foot-feathered, -foundered, -gilt, -lame, (also -lameness) adjs.; also, footward adv.

420 1886.  C. F. Gordon Cumming, Wanderings in China, I. 168. There is a regular class of *‘foot-binders’—women whose profession it is to produce this horrible distortion, with the aid of long bandages of cotton cloth; and in the hands of an unskilful binder the process of torture is indefinitely prolonged.

421 1609.  J. Davies, Holy Roode (Grosart), I. 9/1.                    Did He by his pow’r, Strengthen thee Weakling (for, He all things can) To march vpon the Seas *foot-failing floore?

422 1818.  Keats, Endym., IV. 331.        *Foot-feather’d Mercury appear’d sublime Beyond the tall tree tops; and in less time Than shoots the slanted hail-storm, down he dropt Towards the ground.

423 1813.  ‘Ædituus,’ Metrical Remarks, 29.        Slight rippled by the wave, the *foot-firm sand Stretches its lengthened course along the land.

424 1801.  Bloomfield, Rural T., 227.        A poor old Man, *foot-founder’d and alone, Thus urgent spoke, in Trouble’s genuine tone.

425 1859.  Tennyson, Vivien, 279.        And I was faint to swooning, and you lay *Foot-gilt with all the blossom-dust of those Deep meadows we had traversed.

426 1868.  Browning, Ring & Bk., IX. 1084.        I have had just the pitifullest dream That ever proved man meanest of his mates, And born foot-washer and *foot-wiper, nay *Foot-kisser to each comrade of you all!

427 c. 1305.  Pol. Songs (Camden), 194. Sixti thousent on a day hue maden *fot lome.

428 c. 1325.  Poem Times Edw. II., 264, Ibid., 335. And thus knihtshipe [is] acloied and waxen al fot lame.

429 1828.  Nimrod, Condition of Hunters, in Sporting Mag., XXII. Sept., 347/1. He [a horse] was struck with *foot-lameness in his twenty-second year, and shot.

430 1762.  Goldsm., Cit. W., iii. ¶ 6. Your nose-borers, *feet-swathers, tooth-stainers, eyebrow pluckers, would all want bread, should their neighbours want vanity.

431 c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., VI. 181.        And therupon doo stones handfull grete, And wel *foote-tempred morter theron trete.

432 1822.  T. Mitchell, Aristoph., II. 211 (The Wasps).          Phil. (prays)  Cecrops, hero, lord and master, (what if thy dimensions end Footward in a wily serpent?) now stand forth a dicast’s friend.

433 1871.  R. Ellis, trans. Catull., lxiv. 66.        Widely from each fair limb that footward-fallen apparel Drifts its lady before, in billowy salt loose-playing.

434 1870.  Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. li. 14. If we could be preacher, precentor, doorkeeper, pewopener, *footwasher, and all in one, all would be too little to show forth all our gratitude.

435   35.  Special comb.: foot-ale dial. (see quots.); † foot-and-half-foot a., sesquipedalian; foot-and-mouth disease, ‘a febrile affection of horned cattle and some other animals, communicable also to man’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1884); foot-bank Fortif. = BANQUETTE (see also quot. 1626); foot-base Arch., ‘the moulding above the plinth of an apartment’ (Ogilvie); † foot-bass, an instrument on which a bass is played by the feet (see quot.); foot-bath, † (a) a ‘wash’ for the feet; (b) the act of bathing the feet; (c) a vessel in which the feet are bathed; foot-bearing Mech., a bearing for the foot of a vertical shaft: cf. FOOT-STEP; † foot-bench = BANQUETTE; † foot-blast, the blast produced by bellows worked with the foot; ? † foot-boat, a ferry-boat for foot-passengers only; foot-bone, the tarsus; foot-bridge, (a) a bridge for foot-passengers; (b) Mech. (see quot. 1872); † foot-clapper, a dancer; † foot-coal (see quot.); foot-cushion, (a) a cushion for the feet; (b) Entom. a pulvillus; foot-dirt = foots (see FOOT sb.); foot-drain, a shallow drain; cf. foot-trench; † foot-fast, a prisoner; † foot-fastness, captivity; † foot-follower, an attendant (transl. L. pedisequus, -sequa); foot-free, a. and adv., with the foot or feet free; foot-gang, (a) ‘a long, narrow chest, extending alongside a wooden bed; (b) as much ground as one can move on’ (Jam.); † foot-geld (see quot. 1641); † foot-gin, a snare for the feet; † foot-glove, a kind of shoe; foot-grease (see quot.); † foot-grene = fool-gin; foot-guard, a guard or protection for the foot; foot-halt, a disease that attacks the feet of sheep; foot-hedge (see quots.); foot-hill, a hill lying at the foot of a mountain or mountain-range; foot-hole, a hole in which to place the foot (in climbing); † foot-husk (see quot.); foot-iron (see quots.); foot-jaw, one of the anterior limbs of crustacea and other arthropoda that are modified so as to assist in mastication; foot-key, an organ pedal; foot-knave = FOOTMAN; † foot-land-raker, a foot-pad; foot-length, Angling (see quot.); foot-level (see quot.); foot-ley, dial. (see quot. 1881); foot-licker, ‘a slave, an humble fawner, one who licks the foot’ (J.); so foot-licking ppl. a.; foot-line, (a) Printing (see quots.); (b) Fishing, ‘the lead-line or lower line of a net or seine’ (Cent. Dict.); foot-loose a., free to move the feet, untrammeled; † foot-maid, † -maiden, a female attendant; foot-maker Glass-making (see quot. 1881); † foot-match, a running- or walking-match; foot-muff, a muff for keeping the feet warm; † foot-nail, some kind of nail; † foot-organ (cf. foot-bass above); foot-ornament Arch. (see quot.); † foot-pack, a pedlar’s pack; foot-pad, a pad to protect the foot of a horse (Knight); also Entom. = foot-cushion (Cent. Dict.); foot-page, a boy attendant or servant; foot-pan, (a) a foot-bath; (b) a foot-warmer; foot-peat (see quot. and cf. breast-peat); foot-piece Mining (see quot.); † foot-pimp, a pimp in attendance; foot-plate (see quots.); foot-plough, a plough without a wheel, a swing-plough; † foot-poet (after foot-man, etc.: see quot.); foot-post, a letter-carrier or messenger who travels on foot; postal delivery by means of such carriers; foot-pound Mech., the quantity of energy required to raise a weight of one pound to the height of one foot; foot-poundal, a unit consisting of the energy of a pound weight moving at the rate of one foot per second; foot-race, a race run by persons on foot, a running-match; so foot-racing vbl. sb.; foot-rail, (a) a rail (esp. a bar or cross-piece connecting the legs of a table or seat) upon which the feet are rested; (b) see quot. 1874); (c) (see quot. 1867); (d) var. form of FOOTRILL; foot-rest, a bench, stool, or the like, used for supporting a person’s feet; foot-room, space in which to move the feet; foot-rope Naut., (a) the bolt-rope to which the lower edge of a sail is sewed; (b) a rope extended beneath a yard upon which the sailors stand when furling or reefing; foot-rot, an inflammatory disease of the foot in cattle and sheep; whence foot-rotting (vbl. sb.), treating sheep that have the foot-rot; foot-rule, a measuring rule one foot long; foot-rut Agric. (see quot.); foot-scent Hunting, the scent of a trail; foot-screw (see quot.); † foot-seam (see quot.) foot-seine (see quot.); foot-set (see quot. 1854 and cf. foot-hedge); foot-sheet, a sheet formerly used to sit upon while dressing or undressing; also, ‘a narrow sheet spread across the foot of a bed’ Jam. Suppl.); foot-side Sc. (a) adj., (of a garment), reaching to the feet; (b) adv., step for step; phr. to keep foot-side, to keep pace (with); foot-slope, the slope at the foot of a hill; foot-space-rail Naut. (see quots.); † foot-spore, the mark or print of a foot; † foot-stake, a base or support; foot-stay, a stay or rest for the feet; foot-stick Printing (see quot. 1888); † foot-stock, (a) a kind of fulling-stocks used by hatters; (b) a step or stool for the feet; (c) Naut. (see quot. 1598); foot-stone, † (a) a base, pedestal; (b) the foundation-stone of a building; (c) the stone at the foot of a grave; foot-stove, a stove to warm the feet; † foot-strife, strife or contention in running; foot-stroke, a stroke at the foot of a letter; foot-stump = foot-tubercle; foot-sugar = foots: see FOOT sb. 22; † foot-team, ‘(apparently) the end of the drawing-gear which is fastened to a plough or harrow’ (Skeat); foot-ton, the amount of energy capable of raising a ton weight to the height of one foot; foot-tramp, the tramp of the feet, also a tramp or expedition on foot; † foot-trap, (a) a trap or snare for the feet; (b) the stocks; foot-trench, a shallow trench (cf. foot-drain); foot-tubercle (see quot.); foot-valve, (in a steam-engine) the valve between the air-pump and condenser; foot-waling Naut. (see quots.); foot-wall Mining, the wall or side of rock that is under a vein or lode; foot-warmer, a contrivance for keeping the feet warm, esp. while traveling; foot-washing, the washing of another’s feet, esp. as a religious observance; also, locally as a wedding-ceremony; foot-weir, some kind of weir; † foot-wharf, (see quot.); † foot-wise adv., with the feet first, footling; † foot-withy, a shackle for the foot of an animal; foot-wobbler slang, a foot-soldier; foot-work, † (a) attrib. in footwork silk (? meaning); (b) a work to protect the foot of a structure; (c) Football, ‘work’ done with the feet, dribbling and kicking; foot-worn a., (a) worn by the feet; (b) worn or wearied as to the feet, footsore.

436 1747.  Hooson, Miner’s Dict., *Foot-ale, an old Custom amongst Miners, when a Man enters first into Work, to pay his first Days Wages for Ale.

437 1881.  Leicestersh. Gloss., s.v. Footing.… A stranger looking on at workmen engaged in their work will generally be asked to ‘pay his footing,’ or ‘stand his foot-ale.’

438 1598.  B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., Prol.                    Or, with three rustie swords, And helpe of some few foot-and-halfe-foote words, Fight over York and Lancaster’s long jarres; And in the tyring-house, bring wounds, to scarres.

439 1862.  Edin. Vet. Rev., IV. 506. Cows affected with the *foot and mouth disease.

440 1626.  Ainsworth, Annot. Pentat., Lev. ii. 13. They laid on the salt in three places; in the salt chamber, and on the *foot-banke (of the altar,) and on the top of the Altar.

441 1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Foot-bank or Foot-step, (in Fortif.) a Step about 11/2 Foot high, and a Foot wide, rais’d with Earth, under a Parapet, or Breast-work; upon which the Men get up to Fire over it.

442 1882.  E. O’Donovan, Merv Oasis, I. xvi. 275–6. In some places the footbank has crumbled away to such an extent that only a few inches in breadth remain, and making the circuit of the enceinte is a perilous affair.

443 1786.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1853), II. 75. I have lately examined a *foot-bass newly invented here, by the celebrated Krumflotz…. It is placed on the floor, and the harpsichord or other piano-forte is set over it, the foot acting in concert on that, while the fingers play on this.

444 1599.  A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 357/2. Take Oaken-leaues Miij. Saulte Mj. make therof a footebath, as deepe that the disease may be therwith couered.

445 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Foot-bath, a pan in which to wash the feet.

446 1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., Foot, In mech., the lower end of an upright or vertical shaft, and which works in a foot-step, or *foot-bearing.

447 1629.  S’hertogenbosh, 19. Trenches with double bankets or *feet-benches.

448 1622.  Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 273. If you haue vent enough for the Litargium, which is your Lead, as it is cast vp by the *Foot-blast, or otherwise being red to paint withall, then may you make profitable worke euery way.

449 1776.  Pennant, Tour in Wales, I. 64. These cinders are not half exhausted of their metal; for the Romans knew only the weak powers of the foot-blast.

450 1579.  Dee, Diary (Camden), 6. The *fote bote for the ferry at Kew was drowned and six persons, by the negligens of the ferryman overwhelming the boat uppon the roap set there to help, by reason of the vehement and high waters.

451 1841.  Hartshorne, Salopia Antiqua, Gloss., 430. Foot boat, a boat soley used for transporting foot passengers.

452 1658.  Sir T. Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, iii. 58. In the motive parts of animals may be discovered mutuall proportions; not only in those of Quadrupeds, but in the thigh-bone, legge, *foot-bone, and claws of Birds.

453 1833.  R. Mudie, Brit. Birds (1841), I. 23. Three toes before, united by a membrane at their bases, and one behind articulated on the tarsus, or foot-bone (often called the leg), above the articulation of the front toes.

454 1506.  Pylgrym. Sir R. Guylforde (Camden), 31. There lay ouer the same a tree for a *fote brydge, wherof the holy crosse was afterwardes made.

455 1807.  Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 802.        The foot-bridge fail’d, he plung’d beneath the deep, And slept, if truth were his, th’ eternal sleep.

456 1892.  Lockwood, Dict. Mech. Engin. (ed. 2), Foot Bridge, an arched bridge which carries a footstep bearing.

457 1620.  Shelton, Quix., II. xiv. 120. For your *Foot-clappers, I say nothing, you would wonder to see vm bestirre themselues.

458 1712.  F. Bellers, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 542. A coarse sort of Coal, called the *Foot-Coal.

459 c. 1460.  J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 883.                        Þe said shete ouer sprad So þat it keuer þe *fote coschyn and chayere.

460 1816.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), II. 257. Other climbers ascend by means of foot-cushions (pulvilli) composed of hairs, as thickly set as in plush or velvet, with which the under sides of the joints of their tarsi—the claw-joint, which is always naked, excepted—are covered.

461 1811.  East, Reports, XIII. 523. Before Greenland oil is delivered, it is the constant custom … for a broker, on behalf both of the buyer and seller, to attend to make a minute of the *foot-dirt and water in each cask.

462 1807.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 285. Judiciously planned and executed to receive the surface-water from *foot-drains laid out upon the surface of the morass.

463 a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter, lxxviii[i]. 11.        In-ga in þi sight to seene Sighynge of *fote-festes þat beene.     Ibid., civ. [cv.] 18. Þai meked of him fete þare, In *fote-festnes harde þat ware.

464 1382.  Wyclif, 1 Sam. xxv. 42. And fyue child-wymmen, hir *feet folowers, wenten with hir. Ibid., 1 Kings xx. 14. Bi the foot folowers of the pryncis of prouyncis.

465 1837.  W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 50. When a horse that is ‘foot free,’ is tied to one thus secured, the latter forms, as it were, a pivot, round which the other runs and curvets, in case of alarm.

466 1871.  Browning, Balaustion, 1437.                    But thou—who stood’st Foot-free o’ the snare, wast acquiescent then That I, the young, should die, not thou, the old.

467 1663.  Inv. Ld. J. Gordon’s Furniture. Ane arm chair, two stooles and ane *foot gange conforme to the bed.

468 1814.  Saxon & Gael, I. 108. I’ll warran’ she’ll keep her ain side o’ the house; an’ a fit-gang on her half-marrows.

469 1594.  R. Crompton, Jurisd. des Courts, 197. *Footegeld.

470 1641.  Termes de la Ley, s.v. Footgeld is an Amercement for not cutting out the balls of great Dogges feet in the Forest.

471 1382.  Wyclif, Jer. v. 26. Grenes puttende, and *feet gynnes [Vulg. pedicas].

472 1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, 161. As for Shoes or Stockings, he had gone so long without them, that he cared not even for the Buskins and *Foot-Gloves we wore.

473 1892.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Suppl., *Footgrease, a name for refuse of cotton seed, after the oil is pressed out.

474 1382.  Wyclif, Job xviii. 10. His *foot grene [Vulg. pedica] is hid in the erthe.

475 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 902/1. *Foot-guard. A boot or pad to prevent the cutting of the feet by interfering or overreaching.

476 1794.  Ann. Agric., XXII. 364. Sheep are subject to a disease called the *foot-halt, which is thought to be catching;—paring the feet, and applying the butter of antimony, is the remedy.

477 1750.  Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., I. i. 93. A *Foot-hedge is one that has no Ditch belonging to it.

478 1854.  Anne Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Foot-hedge. A slight dry hedge of thorns, placed by the side of a newly-planted hedge, to protect the quick.

479 1879.  Miss Bird, Rocky Mount., 232. The long ascent through sweeping *foothills to the gates of rock at a height of 9000 feet.

480 1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xi. 77. To render my *foot-holes broad and sure, I stamped upon the frozen crust, and twisted my legs in the soft mass underneath,—a terribly exhausting process.

481 1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 611. Footholes—Holes cut in the sides of shafts or winzes to enable miners to ascend or descend them.

482 1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), *Foot-husks, are short Heads, out of which Flowers grow.

483 1842.  Francis, Dict. Arts, etc., *Foot Iron. An iron fastened to the foot, in order to preserve the shoe while digging.

484 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Foot-iron, Foot-plate, a step for a carriage.

485 1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 183. *Feet-jaws membranous, compressed, concave, of ten joints.

486 1845.  Baird, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 13, 153. Mouth possessed of foot-jaws.

487 c. 1400.  Ywaine & Gaw., 2266.        And that the laddes of his kychyn, And also that his werst *fote-knave.

488 1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. i. 81. I am ioyned with no *Foot-land-Rakers, no Long-staffe six-penny strikers, none of these mad Mustachio-purple-hu’d-Maltwormes, but with Nobility and Tranquilitie.

489 1875.  ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. v. ii. § 1. 309. The *Foot-Length, or the extreme portion of the line, is … generally made of pieces of gut, knotted together, and altogether comprising a length of from three to eight feet.

490 1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., *Foot Level, an instrument, which serves to do the office both of a level, a square, and a Foot rule.

491 1638.  Terrier of Claybrook Glebe (Leicestersh. Gloss.). In the New Close a hadley and *footeleay butting North and South, the Town Hill furlong West, the Constable’s piece East.

492 1881.  Leicestersh. Gloss., Foot-ley, the lowest ‘land’ in a grass field.

493 1610.  Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 219.        Do that good mischeefe, which may make this Island Thine owne for euer, and I thy Caliban For aye thy *foot-licker.

494 1866.  Carlyle, Remin. (1881), I. 258. Had come to Birmingham on visit to some footlicker whose people lived there.

495 1821.  T. Moore, Mem. (1853), III. 276. The only excuse I can find for the worse than Eastern prostration into which my countrymen have grovelled during these few last weeks is, that they have so long been slaves, they know no better, and that it is not their own fault if they know no medium between brawling rebellion and *foot-licking idolatry.

496 1676.  Moxon, Print Lett., 6. The *Foot-line is the lower line that bounds the Letter.

497 1888.  Jacobi, Printer’s Vocab., Footline.—The bottom line in a page.

498 a. 1699.  Joseph Beaumont, Psyche (1702) XIII. cxlviii.        Sedition was his Drift, and He could ne’r Persue that game unless he *footloose were.

499 c. 1450.  Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 72. Sche xal be here *foot-mayd to mynyster here most mylde.

500 1847.  Halliwell, *Foot-maiden, a waiting maid.

501 1869.  Leicester, in Eng. Mech., 3 Dec. 282/2. While the finisher is doing this, another workman, called the *‘footmaker,’ fastens on the piece of glass from the crucible.

502 1881.  Spon’s Encycl. Industr. Arts, etc., III. 1069. Each chair is made up of a ‘workman,’ a first assistant or ‘servitor,’ a second assistant or ‘footmaker,’ and one or more boys.

503 1707.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4314/3. There will be … *Foot-Matches, and other Divertisements.

504 1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xvi. 183. He was coiled up, with his nose buried in his bushy tail, like a fancy *foot-muff or the prie-dieu of a royal sinner.

505 1406.  in Rogers, Agric. & Prices (1866), III. 446. *Fotnail called spiking, 1 c../6.

506 1802.  M. Cutler, in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888), II. 60. The *foot organ is a prodigious addition to Forte-Pianos.

507 1848.  Rickman, Styles Archit. (ed. 5), 74. The pedestal on which the pier stands being always square, while the pier itself with its base mouldings is often round, an interval occurs at the angles which is frequently filled up with an ornament consisting most commonly of rude foliage, these are usually called *foot ornaments, as at St. Cross, and Romsey abbey.

508 1526.  Tolls, in Dillon, Calais & Pale (1892), 80. Everye Jeweller carriing or beringe of any *footepacke inwardes.

509 1585.  Nomenclator, 519/1. A messenger, or he that is alwayes ready at his maisters becke to runne of errands: a lackey: a *foote-page.

510 1814.  Scott, Wav., xxiv. Edward learned that his friend had departed with the dawn, leaving none of his followers except Callum Beg, the sort of foot-page who used to attend his person, and who had it now in charge to wait upon Waverley.

511 1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Foot-pan, footbath.

512 1884.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 353/2. The foot-pans which are used in the railway cars of Continental Europe to warm the feet of the passengers.

513 1802.  Findlater, Agric. Surv. Peeb., 208. As the digger stands upon the surface, and presses in the peat-spade with his foot, such peat is designed foot-peat.

514 1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 611. *Foot-piece—A wedge of wood or part of a slab placed against the footwall.

515 1690.  Dryden, Amphitryon, II. i. I, who am a God, am degraded to a *foot Pimp; a Waiter without Doors; a very civil employment for a Deity!

516 1849.  Weale, Dict. Terms, 190. *Foot-plate, the platform on which the engine-man and fire-man of a locomotive engine attend to their duties.

517 1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., Foot-plate, carriagestep; platform on which the enginedriver stands.

518 1677.  Plot, Oxfordsh., 247. There are two sorts used in Oxford-shire, the *Foot, and Wheel-plough; whereof the first is used in deep and Clay Lands, being accordingly fitted with a broad fin share.

519 1807.  A. Young, Agric. Essex, I. v. 127. Both swing, or foot, and wheel ploughs, are used around Kelvedon, and it is much disputed which is preferable.

520 1697.  Dryden, Æneid, Ded. I return to our Italian Translator of the Æneis: He is a *Foot-Poet, he Lacquies by the side of Virgil at the best, but never mounts behind him.

521 1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 85 a. For carrying of such aduertisements and letters euery thorow-fare weekly appoynteth a *foot-Poast, to giue his hourely attendance, whose dispatch is welneere as speedy as the horses.

522 1841.  M. Elphinstone, The History of India, II. VIII. iii. 243. Foot posts, to a certain extent, must be coeval with village establishments.

523 1850.  Joule, in Phil. Trans., CXL. 70. Hence 773·64 *foot-pounds, will be the force which, according to the above experiments on the friction of water, is equivalent to 1° Fahr. in a lb. of water.

524 1663.  Pepys, Diary (1890), 172. The town talk this day of nothing but the great *foot-race run this day on Banstead Downes.

525 1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 252. He stood godfather to the children of the peasantry, mingled in every rustic sport, wrestled, played at quarter-staff, and won foot-races in his boots against fleet runners in shoes.

526 1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past., II. ii. 70. In the middle ages, *foot-racing was considered as an essential part of a young man’s education, especially if he was the son of a man of rank, and brought up to a military profession.

527 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Foot-rails, narrow mouldings raised on a vessel’s stern.

528 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 903/1. Foot-rail. A railroad-rail having wide-spreading foot flanges, a vertical web, and a bulb-shaped head.

529 1861.  Beresf. Hope, Eng. Cathedr. 19th. C., 148. Only three of the ranges were really sittings, the remainder having served as steps and *footrests.

530 1776.  Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, III. 126.                The mountain and the wide-spread lawn Afford not *foot-room for the crowded foe.

531 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 167. Propes, *fotrap.

532 1772–84.  Cook, Voy. (1790), V. 1915. In lowering the main top-sail, in order to reef it, the violence of the wind tore it out of the foot-rope, and it was split in several parts.

533 1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, v. 11. The crew stood abaft the windlass and hauled the jib down while we got out upon the weather side of the jib-boom, our feet on the foot-ropes, holding on by the spar, the great jib flying off to leeward and slatting so as almost to throw us off of the boom.

534 1807.  Ess. Highl. Soc., III. 430. *Foot-rot—is frequently occasioned in the milking season, by the bughts being dirty.

535 1873.  G. C. Davies, Mount. & Mere, xxii. 193. Cleanliness is the sure preventative against footrot, that plague of the ferret-keeper.

536 1884.  Marcus Clarke, Mem., 99. So young Hopeful goes, and is put upon a rough bush horse, and made to ride in stock; or is sent to look after some fencing ten miles from the home-station; or is set to work foot-rotting, and soon finds out that life is not ‘all beer and skittles.’

537 1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., *Foot rule [see foot level].

538 1760.  M. Raper, in Phil. Trans., LI. 774. The foot-rules found in old ruins at Rome, are of various lengths.

539 1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Character, Wks. (Bohn), II. 59. They saw a hole into the head of the ‘winking Virgin,’ to know why she winks; measure with an English footrule every cell of the Inquisition, every Turkish caaba, every Holy of holies.

540 1846.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VII. I. 72. At the head of the plough is a *foot rut, made of wood, and a wide piece of wood on the end, to prevent the plough going deep; if the foot was not wide, it would cut into the soil.

541 1875.  ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. iv. § 4. 80. A good setter shows his superiority, as he generally makes out a foot-scent better than a pointer.

542 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 903/1. *Foot-screw. A supporting foot, for giving a machine or table a level standing on an uneven floor.

543 1589.  Cogan, Haven Health, cliv. (1636), 149. The fat which is left upon the water of the seething of Netes feet, called commonly *foot seame, is passing good for the stiffenesse or starkenesse of the Synewes or joynts, for the Crampe and such like.

544 1874.  E. W. H. Holdsworth, Deep-Sea Fishing, iv. 157. Seans [sweep-nets] may be divided into three classes, namely, the sean proper—sometimes also called the ‘stop-sean’—the ‘tuck-sean,’ and the ‘ground or *foot-sean.’

545 1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 510. This was at first practised with *foot-sets for a prick-hedge.

546 1854.  Anne Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Foot-hedge.… Called in some parts of the county a foot-set; but in the locality where foot-hedge is adopted, a foot-set is described as two rows of quick, planted about a foot asunder on a slope.

547 c. 1440.  Bk. Curtasye, 488, in Babees Bk., 193.        Þo lorde schalle skyft hys gowne at nyȝt, Syttand on *foteshete tyl he be dyȝt.

548 1494.  Househ. Ord. (1790), 120. All this season the Kinge shall sitt still in his footesheete.

549 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VII. xi. 31.        Gyrd in a garmont semely and *fut syd, Thyr ȝettis suld vp oppin and ward wyd.

550 1780.  M. Shields, Faithf. Contendings, 38. The Lord is helping some to keep foot-side with the bretheren at home.

551 1873.  Geikie, Gt. Ice Age (1894), xxix. 437. The ice radiated outwards from Scandinavia, moving across the great plains of Europe into Southern Belgium, and to the *foot-slopes of the hills of Middle Germany.

552 1815.  Falconer’s Marine Dict. (ed. Burney), *Footspace-Rail, in ship-building, is that rail in the balcony in which the ballusters step.

553 c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 119. Foot-space rail. The rail that terminates the foot of the balcony, and in which balusters step, if there be no pedestal rail.

554 1867.  in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.

555 c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., III. 286. Gif hit sy oðer feoh, sing on þæt *fotspor.

556 1481.  Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 38. Where his footspore stood there stryked he with his tayl.

557 1382.  Wyclif, Exod. xxvii. 12. Ten pilers, and as feele *footstakis [Vulg. bases].

558 1658.  Sir T. Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, i. 37. Nor shall we take in the mystical Tau, or the Crosse of our blessed Saviour, which having in some descriptions an Empedon or crossing *foot stay, made not one single transversion.

559 1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., II. 29. The Side-sticks are placed against the outer side of the Page, and the *Foot-sticks against the foot or bottom of the Page: The outer sides of these Side and Foot-sticks are bevil’d or sloped from the further to the hither end.

560 1888.  Jacobi, Printer’s Vocab., Footstick.—A bevelled stick put at the bottom of a page or pages to quoin up against.

561 1565.  Act 8 Eliz., c. 11 § 4. Untyll suche tyme as the same Cappe be … half thicked at the least in the *Footestocke.

562 1565.  Jewel, Def. Apol. (1611), 384. Sapores sommetime, the proude Kinge of Persia, when hee had conquered Valerianus the Roman Emperour, and taken him prisoner, used him afterward most villanously, as his foot-stocke.

563 1598.  Florio, Stamine, the vpright ribs or peeces of timber of the inside of a ship, of some called footestocks, or footesteecks.

564 1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 31. Ships they had, of which the Keeles, the footstocks also, or upright standards were made of light Timber.

565 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., Suppl., in Wr.-Wülcker, 191. Fultura *fotstan.

566 1738.  J. Anderson, Constit. Free Masons, 102. The King levell’d the Footstone of the New Royal-Exchange in solemn Form, on 23 Oct. 1667. and it was open’d, the finest in Europe, by the Mayor and Aldermen on 28 Sept. 1669.

567 1876.  Browning, St. Martin’s Summer, v.            Headstone, footstone moss may drape,— Name, date, violets hide from spelling,—   But, tho’ corpses rot obscurely,     Ghosts escape.

568 1885.  C. A. Hulbert, Suppl. Ann. Almondbury, 167. When it was decided to restore the old Hall, and the work had been commenced, a footstone was discovered which clearly indicated the pitch of the front gables, so that it may be assumed that the Hall now presents its original appearance.

569 1818.  Art Preserv. Feet, 152. Our English travellers therefore who chuse to spend their winters in Flanders, or the northern parts of Italy, &c. should always be on their guard against the use of *feet-stoves, and other artificial modes of raising the temperatures which they may meet with in those countries.

570 1882.  Howells, Lexington, in Longm. Mag., I. Nov., 46–7. I cannot give them great adventitious importance by grouping them with the rude writing-desk of one of the old Puritan ministers of Lexington, or the foot-stove which one of his congregation probably carried to meeting, and warmed his poor feet with while he thawed his imagination at the penal fires painted as the last end of sinners in the sermon.

571 c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, XXIII. 689.        For not our greatest flourisher can equal him in pow’r Of *foot-strife, but Æacides.

572 1676.  Moxon, Print Lett., 23. F Is made like E, onely instead of the *Foot-stroke here is onely a Footing.

573 1872.  Beames, Gram. Aryan Lang. Ind., I. 60. The Panjabi n is that of Asoka’s inscriptions, with the horizontal footstrokes sloped downwards and curved.

574 1882.  Standard, 9 Oct., 2/7. He had no faith in *‘foot’ sugar.

575 1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 4. Yf he wyll haue his plough to go a narowe forowe, as a sede-forowe shulde be, than he setteth his *fote-teame in the nycke nexte to the ploughe-beame.

576 1558.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 162. Iiij fuyt teames xijs.

577 1868.  Morn. Star, 25 June. The total force hurled against the Plymouth shield was 117,666 *foot-tons.

578 1808.  Scott, Marm., III. xxxi.        At distance, prick’d to utmost speed, The *foot-tramp of a flying steed.

579 1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. viii. 79. We are farther north, therefore, than any of our predecessors, except Parry on his Spitzbergen foot-tramp.

580 1388.  Wyclif, Job xviii. 10. The *foot trappe [1382, fool grene, Vulg. pedica] of hym is hid in the erthe.

581 1585.  Nomenclator, 196. The stocks, or foote-trap.

582 1796.  W. Marshall, Midl. Co. (ed. 2), II. Gloss., *Foot-trenches, superficial drains, about a foot wide.

583 1884.  Syd. Soc. Lex., *Foot tubercles, the lateral processes on each segment of some of the Annelida; also called Parapodia.

584 1839.  R. S. Robinson, Naut. Steam Eng., 58. The use of the foot valve is to prevent the return of any water, uncondensed steam, air, &c. from the air pump into the condenser.

585 1750.  T. R. Blanckley, Naval Expos., *Foot waaling is all the Inboard Planking, from the Keelson upwards to the Orlop Clamps.

586 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., foot-waling, the inside planking or lining of a ship over the floor-timbers.

587 1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 611. *Foot-wall—The bounding rock beneath or on the lower side of a reef.

588 1812.  Southey, in Quarterly Review, VII. March, 60. If the Iceland falcon had the same custom, he would certainly chuse an eyder-duck for his *foot-warmer.

589 1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872), I. 1. A foot-warmer (a long, flat, tin utensil, full of hot water) was put into the carriage just before we started; but it did not make us more than half-comfortable.

590 1883.  G. H. Boughton, Artist Strolls in Holland, in Harper’s Mag., LXVI. March, 539/1. Glowing peat charcoal to put in the little foot-warmers still used by all womenkind in Dutch churches.

591 1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 281. They practise the *foot washing, the kiss of love, and the use of the lot.

592 1871.  C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, xxii. He would be ready to endure the ceremony of the ‘Feet-washing’ on the eve of his bridal.

593 1584.  in Binnell, Descr. Thames (1758), 63. No Fishermen, Garthmen, Petermen, Draymen, or Trinkermen, shall avaunce or set up any Wears, Engines, Rowte Wears, Pight Wears, *Foot Wears.

594 1721.  Perry, Daggenh. Breach, 52. To be a Buttress or *Foot Wharf on each side to keep in the Earth, with which the Dam is to be filled, to prevent the Dam from spreading and settling out at Foot.

595 1545.  Raynold, Byrth Mankynde (1564), 66. When the one commeth headlong, the other *footewise, the must the Midwife help the Birth that is most nearest the issue.

596 1569.  Richmond Wills (Surtees), 218. x. ireon temes and *foite wedies, xxxiij s.

597 1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, *Foot Wabler. A contemptuous appellation for a foot soldier, commonly used by the cavalry.

598 1814.  Scott, Wav., lxi. ‘I saw you were military from your air, and I was sure you could be none of the foot-wobblers, as my Nosebag calls them.’

599 1568.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 294. A Remnant of *footwork silke ijs.

600 1721.  Perry, Daggenh. Breach, 120. There may likewise be a small Foot-work made at the Low-water Mark to the Eastward of the Peer, the better to preserve the Beach from being washed away.

601 1895.  Daily News, 16 Dec., 6/6. Their [the Northern team’s] foot work.

602 1795–1814.  Wordsw., Excursion, V. 169.        Sepulchral stones appeared, with emblems graven And *foot-worn epitaphs, and some with small And shining effigies of brass inlaid.

603 1820.  Keats, Eve St. Agnes, xli.          But his sagacious eye an inmate owns:   By one, and one, the bolts full easy slide:—   The chains lie silent on the footworn stones;— The key turns, and the door upon its hinges groan.

604 1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxxii. 440. Suffering and a sense of necessity had involved some of our foot-worn absentees in a breach of hospitality.

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