a. [f. FOUR a. + FOOT sb. + -ED2.] Having four feet, quadruped.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 43 Innan þan ilke sea weren unaneomned deor summe feðer fotetd.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19848 (Cott). All four foted bestes sagh he bun.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 19. There is found in Calicut, diuers and sundry kyndes of foure footed beastes and foules.
1714. Berkeley, Serm., Wks. 1871, IV. 606. Professing themselves wise they changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an image, made like to corruptible man, and to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things.
1887. Sir R. H. Roberts, In the Shires, ix. 150. I have had many a four-footed friend who would eat from no hand but mine.
b. Of or pertaining to four-footed animals.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., III. § 14. Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, and Caricatura representations.
1698. Dryden, Ovid’s Metam. Fables (1700), 434.
| And Augur Astylos, whose Art in vain | |
| From Fight dissuaded the four-footed Train, | |
| Now beat the Hoof with Nessus on the Plain. |
1840. Hood, Kilmansegg, Her Accident, vi.
| And the Maid rides first in the fourfooted strife, | |
| Riding, striding, as if for her life, | |
| While the Lover rides after to catch him a wife. |
c. quasi-adv. On four feet.
1718. Prior, Knowledge, 631.
| From all the living that four-footed move | |
| Along the shore, the meadow, or the grove. |
