1. A path for foot-passengers only.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 141. Lyke as the fote path or waye ledeth to the cite.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. i. 58. Glou. Know’st thou the way to Douer? Edg. Both style, and gate; Horseway, and foot-path.
1786. Burns, Brigs of Ayr, 100.
| Will your poor, narrow foot-path of a street, | |
| Where twa wheel-barrows tremble when they meet— | |
| Your ruin’d, formless bulk o’ stane an’ lime, | |
| Compare wi’ bonnie Brigs o’ modern time? |
1842. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., I. 156. A foot-path about half-a-yard wide, and overgrown with green, and strewn with fallen apples, cuts across the bit of green field between the church and the rectory.
fig. 1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxviii. [cxix.] 15. I wil exercise my self in thy commaundementes, & haue respecte vnto thy fotepathes.
† 2. ? A pedestal. Obs.
1580. Eccl. Proc. Bp. Barnes (Surtees), 128. There remaneth in the quere certayne corbile stones which were some time fotte pathes for images, one on eyther side the place of the highe alter.
3. attrib.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iii. 132.
| Iog-on, Iog-on, the foot-path way, | |
| And merrily hent the Stile-a: | |
| A merry heart goes all the day, | |
| You sad tyres in a Mile-a. |
1892. Daily News, 15 Feb., 5/1. The National Footpath Preservation Society.
Hence Footpath, v. trans., to make a footpath or footpaths across.
1844. Mrs. Browning, A Drama of Exile, Poet. Wks. 1889, I. 81.
| This shall film your sun, | |
| Shall hunt your lightning to its lair of cloud, | |
| Turn back your rivers, footpath all your seas, | |
| Lay flat your forests, master with a look | |
| Your lion at his fasting, and fetch down | |
| Your eagle flying. |
