Obs. exc. Hist. [See PAD.] A highwayman who robs on foot.
1683. Dryden & Lee, Duke of Guise, Ded. Though they assault us like footpads in the dark, their blows have done us little harm.
1789. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Subj. for Paint., Wks. 1812, II. 179.
| ‘Sirs, I’m no Highwayman,’ exclaim’d the Knight.— | |
| ‘No: there,’ rejoin’d the Runners, ‘you are right; | |
| A Footpad only. |
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, ii. At that time, too, all the roads in the neighbourhood of the metropolis were infested by footpads or highwaymen, and it was a night, of all others, in which any evil-disposed person of this class might have pursued his unlawful calling with little fear of detection.
Hence Footpad v., to play the footpad; Footpadding vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Footpaddery, -padry (nonce-wd.), the occupation of a foot-pad.
1735. in W. C. Sydney, Eng. 18th C. (1891), II. 282. Five condemned malefactors were executed at Tyburn—viz., Kiffe and Wilson for footpadding, in the first cart; Macdonald and Martin, alias Pup’s Nose, for horse-stealing, in the second cart; and Morperth for footpadding, in a coach.
1790. Burns, Lett. to Cunningham, 13 Feb. A glass of whisky-toddy with a ruby-nosed yoke-fellow of a foot-padding exciseman.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alteram Partem, III. ciii. 7. From foot-padding upwards, it is always desirable to get at the principle. Ibid. (1861), III. clxxviii. 215. As if highwaymanhood and foot-padry were not domestic institutions, in the families that live by them.
1874. W. C. Smith, Borland Hall, 152.
| I hate a fellow that scamps his job, | |
| False work never yet won the day; | |
| I’d sooner footpad it, and steal and rob, | |
| Or go pick-pocketing through a mob, | |
| Than play that dirty play. |
1889. Doyle, Micah Clarke, xxiii. 233. The smugglers were a lawless and desperate body, but they did not, as a rule, descend to footpaddery or robbery.
