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

Beowulf, 745 (Gr.).

	Sona hæfde
	unlifiȝendes eal ȝefeormod,
	fet and folma.

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

a. 1000.  Phœnix, 311 (Gr.).

	Þæs fuȝles …
	fealwe fotas.

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

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

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.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, II. 359.

	Knychtis that wycht and hardy war,
	Wndyr horss feyt defoulyt thair.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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).

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

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

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

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.

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

  † 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.

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.

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.

  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.

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

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

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.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 843.

	From standing lake to tripping ebbe, that stole
	With soft foot towards the deep.

a. 1774.  Fergusson, Poems (1789), II. 107.

	O think that eild, wi’ wyly fit,
	Is wearing nearer bit by bit!

1813.  Scott, Trierm., III. xxiv.

	Foot of man, till now, hath ne’er
	Dared to cross the Hall of Fear.

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

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.

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.

Proverb.

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

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

  fig.  1607.  Shaks., Cor., IV. vii. 7.

	Vnlesse by vsing meanes I lame the foote
	Of our designe.

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.

  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.’

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.

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 2271.

	He het hetterliche,
	anan wiðuten þe burh,
	bihefden ham, euch fot.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., V. iii. 19.

	What cursed foot wanders this wayes to night,
	To crosse my obsequies, and true loues right?

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

  † 3.  Power of walking or running. Obs.

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

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.

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

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xlix. 48.

	Ay rynnis the fox
	Quhill he fute hais.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17288 + 218 (Cott.).

	Þat one at þe fote of þe graf,
	þat other at the hede.

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.

c. 1442.  Hoccleve, Min. Poems (1892), 238.

	Sire, in a Cofre at my beddes feet yee
	Shul fynde hem.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

  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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

  III.  As a unit of measurement.

  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.

  Often in sing. when preceded by numerals.

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

c. 1205.  Lay., 21996.

	He is imeten a bræde,
	fif & twenti foten;
	fif foten he is deop.

1325.  Chron. Eng., 83, in Ritson, Metr. Rom., II. 273.

	That fourti fet, roumede and grete,
	Into the see he made him lepe.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

13[?].  Coer de L., 2361.

	He shal not have a fote of lond
	Never more but of my hond.

c. 1435.  Torrent of Portugal, 239.

	He durst goo no fote,
	Lest they wold hyme sle.

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

a. 1800.  Lizie Lindsay, in Child, Ballads, VIII. (1892), 265.

	Bonnie Lizie was weary wi’ travelling,
	And a fit furder couldna win.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

  IV.  Something resembling a foot in function or position.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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?’

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.

  b.  (See quot. 1892).

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.

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

  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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

  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.)

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

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.

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.

  12.  Printing. (See quots.)

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

  15.  Of an organ pipe (see quots.).

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

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.

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

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

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.

  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.

  V.  The lowest part, bottom.

  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.

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

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2481 (Cott.).

	Vnder þe fote of mont mambre,
	þar he ches to seit his fee.

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.

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

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.

1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 485.

	And now at foot
	Of Heav’ns ascent they lift thir Feet.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

  a.  Naut. (See quot. 1776.)

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.

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

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.

  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).

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

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

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.

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.

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

  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.

  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.

[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.]

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

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

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.

  21.  What is written at the foot.

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

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

1520.  Churckw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading, 8. In the ffote of the same accompte xj^ll xiiij^s vij^d.

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.

1692.  Dryden, Cleomenes, IV. i.

	A trifling sum of Misery,
	New added to the Foot of thy Account.

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.

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

1552.  Huloet, Dittye synger, or he that beareth y^e fote of the songe, præsentor [sic].

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.

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

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.

  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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

  VI.  Footing, standing, basis.

  † 23.  Foothold, standing-ground. Obs.

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

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

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

  † 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.’

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

  VII.  Phrases.

  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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

  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.’

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

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.

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.

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.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. vii. 67.

	Wee
	Haue vs’d to conquer standing on the earth,
	And fighting foot to foot.

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

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.

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.

  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.

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

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

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.

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.

  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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

  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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  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.

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

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxi. 11.

	Oft Falsett rydis with ane rowt,
	Quhen Trewth gois on his fute abowt.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.’

  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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

1785.  Burns, To Davie, xi.

	And then he’ll hilch, and stilt, an’ jimp,
	And rin an unco fit.

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

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

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!

  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.).

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

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

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 378.

	Without oppressioun that tyme of the puir,
	And fit for fit to Forfar all tha fuir.

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.

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.

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

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

  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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, XXIII. 27.

	Behold! Achilles’ Promise is compleat;
	The bloody Hector stretch’d before thy Feet.

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!

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.

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.

  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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

  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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

  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.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6267 (Cott.).

	He folud wit ost on hors and fote,
	For noght caitiue was him na bote.

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

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

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

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

1667.  Milton, P. L., II. 940.

	Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
	Half flying.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

  c.  In active existence, employment, or operation.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

  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.

c. 1205.  Lay., 11693.

	For þis lond wes þa swiðe god,
	& he hit hæfde al vnder fot.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

  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).

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

  VIII.  attrib. and Comb.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

  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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, V. (1852), 62.

	The fastings, the *footwanderings, and the preachings
	Of Christ and His first followers.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

  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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

  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.

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.

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?

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.

1813.  ‘Ædituus,’ Metrical Remarks, 29.

	Slight rippled by the wave, the *foot-firm sand
	Stretches its lengthened course along the land.

1801.  Bloomfield, Rural T., 227.

	A poor old Man, *foot-founder’d and alone,
	Thus urgent spoke, in Trouble’s genuine tone.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., VI. 181.

	And therupon doo stones handfull grete,
	And wel *foote-tempred morter theron trete.

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.

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.

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.

  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.

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.

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.’

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

c. 1460.  J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 883.

	Þe said shete ouer sprad
	So þat it keuer þe *fote coschyn and chayere.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

c. 1400.  Ywaine & Gaw., 2266.

	And that the laddes of his kychyn,
	And also that his werst *fote-knave.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

a. 1699.  Joseph Beaumont, Psyche (1702) XIII. cxlviii.

	Sedition was his Drift, and He could ne’r
	Persue that game unless he *footloose were.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

1776.  Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, III. 126.

	The mountain and the wide-spread lawn
	Afford not *foot-room for the crowded foe.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.’

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.’

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

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.

c. 1440.  Bk. Curtasye, 488, in Babees Bk., 193.

	Þo lorde schalle skyft hys gowne at nyȝt,
	Syttand on *foteshete tyl he be dyȝt.

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

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VII. xi. 31.

	Gyrd in a garmont semely and *fut syd,
	Thyr ȝettis suld vp oppin and ward wyd.

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

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.

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

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.

1867.  in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, XXIII. 689.

	For not our greatest flourisher can equal him in pow’r
	Of *foot-strife, but Æacides.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

1808.  Scott, Marm., III. xxxi.

	At distance, prick’d to utmost speed,
	The *foot-tramp of a flying steed.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.’

1568.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 294. A Remnant of *footwork silke ij^s.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.