Footstep

[See STEP.]

  1.  A step or tread of the foot; a foot-fall.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. xvi[i]. 5. Oh ordre thou my goynges in thy pathes, that my fote steppes slippe not.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. xi. What marks were there of any other footsteps?

1797.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, I. ix. 265. ‘Whither can the inhabitants of this place have withdrawn themselves?’ said he; ‘wherever I go, I hear only the echoes of my own footsteps; it seems as if death reigned here over all!’

1816.  J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. iii.

  b.  The distance traversed by the foot in stepping, taken as a measure of length or area.

1796.  Stedman, Surinam, I. vii. 142. The smoke of the fire and tobacco, which we burnt to annoy them [musquitoes], was enough to choke us; and not a foot-step of land could we find, where we might cook our salt provisions in safety.

1855.  F. Locker-Lampson, Lond. Lyrics, Old Cradle, vi.

  2.  The mark or print made by a foot.

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 7.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 174/2. Foote steppe, of a mann only, peda.

1611.  Bible, Bel & Dr., 20. I see the footsteps of men, women and children.

1735.  Somerville, The Chace, III. 229.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xvi. 111. On this the footing appeared to me to be singularly insecure, but I marched without hesitation or anxiety in the footsteps of my guide.

  b.  fig., as to follow or walk in a person’s footsteps = to follow his example or guidance.

1549.  Compl. Scot., xvii. 148. Ȝe ar obleist to follou the futsteppis of ȝour predecessours in vertu.

1668.  Denham, Prudence, Poems, 147.

1878.  J. P. Hopps, Jesus x. 36–7. At such times, it was his custom to call upon his sorrowing disciples to be prepared to follow in his footsteps, and to take up their cross bravely and follow him.

  † 3.  fig. A vestige or trace; a mark, token, or indication left by anything whether material or immaterial. Obs.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, v. 59. All these are traces, footsteps, and images, (howbeit with the grossest) of that high misterie.

1647.  N. Bacon, Discourse of the Laws & Government of England, I. (1682), 2. As touching their Cruelty, I find no footsteps in story.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., 141. In the part of the Tooth cut off there appeared the footsteps of a Nerve.

1662.  J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 80. If in the great heat of Summer thou holdest a burning Candle about the hole of a Window, there is no foot-step, for the most part, of mooved Air to be perceived.

1670.  Milton, Hist. Eng., I. 3. Ofttimes relations heertofore accounted fabulous have bin after found to contain in them many foot-steps, and reliques of something true.

1699.  Bentley, Phal., 211. There are plain and visible footsteps, that he has stole it, not from Aristotle’s Poet, but out of Philoctetes, which was not made till sixscore years after Phalaris’s death.

1756.  J. Warton, Ess. Pope (1806), I. 21. Those who have examined the New Forest can discover no mark or footstep of any other place of habitation, parish, or church, or castle, than what at present remains.

1785.  Paley, Mor. Philos. (1818), II. 86. I make no doubt but that by the Lord’s Day was meant the first day of the week; for, we find no footsteps of any distinction of days, which could entitle any other to that appellation.

  † 4.  A foot-path, footway. Obs.

1620.  J. Wilkinson, Court Leet, 119. High-waies or foot steps stopped up.

  5.  A step or raised structure on which to set the foot in order to ascend or descend. † In Fortif. = foot-bank (see FOOT sb. 35).

1549.  Latimer, 6th Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 166. And howe shal they heare wythout a preacher? I tel you it is the fotesteppes of the ladder of heauen, of oure saluacion.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. x. 204–5. If the offering were of flesh it was salted no lesse then thrice, that is, once in the common chamber of salt, at the footestep of the Altar, and upon the top thereof.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Foot-bank or Foot-step, (in Fortif.).

1806.  Wordsw., Sonnet.

1816.  Jane Austen, Emma, I. x. 184. As she crossed the low hedge, and tottering footstep which ended the narrow, slippery path through the cottage garden.

  † b.  A treadle for working a machine (obs.). c. Printing (see quot. 1888). d. A bearing to sustain the foot of a vertical shaft or spindle.

1678.  Phil. Trans., XII. 1007. The Footsteps or Treddles differ in nothing from those which are usually made use of.

1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., II. 72 [Printing]. The Foot Step is an Inch-Board about a Foot broad, and sixteen Inches long.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., Footstep, In mech., the pillow in which the foot of an upright or vertical shaft works.

1888.  Jacobi, Printer’s Vocab., Footstep.—The inclined footstool the pressman puts his foot on when pulling the bar over.

  Hence † Footstepping vbl. sb. = FOOTSTEP 3.

1622.  Cooke, Pope Joan, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 56. Wherefore, if you would persuade me that these eager enemies objected not this against the Pope, you must bring better proof than this, that you find no foot-stepping of it in the answers made unto them.