a. (Stress equal or variable.)
1. Having flat feet, i.e., feet with little or no hollow in the sole and a low instep. Of a horse: Having flat hoofs, with the soles near the ground.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 351. There haue been now of late, Serpents knowne flat-footed like Geese.
1675. Lond. Gaz., No. 979/4. Stolen a Gelding … flat-footed before.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. ix. 185/2. [A Grey-Hound] Long, and Flat footed.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. 70. Pelicans are large flat-footed Fowls, almost as big as Geese, and their Feathers in Colour like them.
1860. Mayne, Exp. Lex., Leiopodes.… Old term … applied by Galen, de Artic. iii. 92, to those who were flat-footed; splay, or broad-footed.
b. transf. Of a rail = FLAT-BOTTOMED.
1889. G. Findlay, Eng. Railway, 42. These [the ‘fish-bellied’ rails] were found troublesome to roll, and this difficulty led to the introduction of the flat-bottomed or ‘flat-footed’ section of rail, combining a solid head with a flanged base.
2. U.S. colloq. Downright, plain and positive. To come out flat-footed (for): to make a bold or positive statement of one’s opinion, or the like.
1846. N. Y. Herald, 30 June (Bartlett). Mr. Pickens … has come out flat-footed for the administration.
1858. Harper’s Mag., XVII. Sept., 563/1. His Herculean frame, and bold, flat-footed way of saying things, had impressed his neighbors, and he held the rod in terrorem over them.
1863. Asa Gray, Lett., II. 504. I think that you, and Hooker, are unreasonable in complaining of Lyell that he does not come out ‘flat-footed,’ as we say, as an advocate of natural-selection transmutation.
Hence Flat-footedly adv., Flat-footedness.
1890. Daily News, 13 Sept., 3/1. The human foot is libelled by these dreadful coverings, in which many a good player flat-footedly dashes about.
1882. Standard, 19 Sept., 5/1. Flat-footedness is due to … improperly-made shoes.
