Foot v.

[f. prec. sb. Cf. G. fuszen.]

  1.  intr. To move the foot, step, or tread to measure or music; to dance. Esp. in phr. to foot it.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 2323.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XIII. ix. 110.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 380. Foote it featly heere, and there, and sweete Sprights beare the burthen.

1700.  Dryden, Wife of Bath’s T., 216.

1787.  G. Colman, Inkle & Yarico, Finale.

1863.  Mrs. C. Clarke, Shaks. Char., iv. 107. The dance of fairies round a mole-hill of wild-thyme, footing it to the cricket’s song, is a lovely object of the fancy; but look at a knot of infants, hand-in-hand, holding each other’s frocks, dancing to a street organ.

  b.  quasi-trans. with cogn. object (a dance, etc.); also (nonce-use) with obj. and adv. as compl.

c. 1450.  Crt. of Love, lxxxiv.

1589.  R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 8. All the picked yoouth, straind out of an whole Endship, footing the Morris about a May pole.

1633.  T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter ii. 3. Herodias’ daughter, that like a dancing whirligig footed away the head of John Baptist, was herself cut shorter by the head with ice.

1636.  Featley, Clavis Myst., xxviii. 388. Teach their scholars how to foot the dance.

1842.  S. C. Hall, Ireland, II. 338, note. Gazing in admiration on some heavy-legged bog-trotter, footing a hornpipe to the music of a pair of bagpipes.

  2.  intr. To move the feet as in walking; to step, pace, walk, go on foot. Also, to step or walk on, over, upon (with indirect pass.). Now rare.

1570.  Levins, Manip., 178. To Foote, gressus ponere.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 8.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 126. Take heed, haue open eye, for theeues doe foot by night.

1600.  Surflet, Countrie Farme, II. xxxi. 239. It [saffron] groweth the better if it be a little footed vpon.

1634.  Ford, P. Warbeck, III. iv.

1637.  Milton, Lycidas, 103.

1642.  Anne Bradstreet, Poems (1678), 10.

1646.  J. Hall, Poems (1647), 98.

1824.  S. E. Ferrier, The Inheritance, lxix. ‘So my companions have got the start of me’; and he footed away as fast as his short legs and ponderous cloak permitted.

1865.  G. Meredith, Rhoda Fleming, xliv. They footed together, speechless; taking the woman’s quickest gliding step.

  b.  esp. in phr. to foot it.

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, Ded. ¶ 3 b. I, feeling in mee selfe no abilitie to withstand so forceable an assault, as one amased, leasurly began to foote it forward.

a. 1625.  Fletcher & Mass., Elder Bro., I. i.

1713.  Addison, Guardian, No. 166, 21 Sept., ¶ 6. My operator, who was to fill my coffers for me, and used to foot it from the other end of the town every morning, complained of a sprain in his leg.

1893.  Earl Dunmore, Pamirs, I. 180–1. Riding for us was out of the question, so we all had to foot it, and a terrible time we had, always up to our knees in snow and occasionally (when we fell into holes) a good deal deeper, and this at an altitude of 18,300 ft. suffering from the extreme rarefaction of the air, hardly being able to breathe, with a burning hot July sun pouring on our heads, an icy cold breeze blowing in our faces, and a glare off the snow that, even through tinted spectacles, was most blinding.

  3.  trans. To set foot on; to tread with the feet; to walk or dance on, pass over or traverse on foot.

1557.  North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., 248 b. Lucil … vsed to fote the streates of Rome.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks, 23. Gained the top of the wall: which was first footed by the duke Godfrey.

1667.  Bp. S. Parker, Free & Impart. Censure, 102. The famous Traveller of Odcomb, who footed most parts of the known world to no other purpose, then to describe his Hosts Beard or Sign-Post.

a. 1717.  Parnell, Fairy T., xxiii.

1812.  J. Henry, Camp agst. Quebec, 26. The ground we footed within the last three days, is a very rugged isthmus, which forms the great bend of the Kennebec.

1892.  Stevenson, in Illustr. Lond. News, 2 July, 9/3. It was good to foot the grass, to look aloft at the green mountains, to see the men with their green wreaths and the women in their bright dresses, red and blue.

  4.  To set or plant (a person) on his feet in a place; to settle, establish. Chiefly refl. and in pass. = to have or obtain a foothold in.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., II. iv. 143.

1633.  T. Stafford, Pacata Hibernia, iii. (1821), 247. When they are footed in Mounster, the most part of the Countrey will joyne with them.

1658.  R. Newcourt, Map of London (heading), Hingest the Saxon … footing himselfe here.

1888.  Daily News, 27 April, 6/3. They will go through the Thanet sands with cylinders again until they foot themselves well into the chalk.

  b.  intr. To foot well: (of a horse)? to get a good ‘footing.’

1826.  Nimrod, in Sporting Mag., XVII. April, 385/1. Were a man to attempt to clear bank and all at one fly, he would not go long; but he is generally safe over them if he have a hand on his horse, and will allow him to ‘foot well’ (as we call it) before he springs.

  † 5.  trans. To strike or thrust with the foot; to kick; fig. to spurn. Obs.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 119.

a. 1616.  Beaum. & Fl., Wit at sev. Weapons, V. i.

1637.  Nabbes, Microcosm., IV. E ij b. Blood. Carry your toes wider. Tast. Take heed that I foote not you.

1808.  Jamieson, Foot, to kick, to strike with the foot; a term used with respect to horses.

  † b.  To tread, press, or crush with the feet.

c. 1682.  J. Collins, Making of Salt in Eng., 16. The Salt hath been beat very small, and the Beef being very well rubbed therewith, it was footed or pressed into a Cask, with sprinklings of Salt between each Lay.

  c.  To push or shove with the foot or feet. Chiefly Naut. (see quots.).

1757.  W. Thompson, R. N. Advoc., 41. It is Weighing the Fore Quarter of a heavy Ox with the Hind Quarter of a light Ox, by which conjugated State they sometimes produce the Standard Weight without Footing or Handing the Scale.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1776), Jetter dehors le fond du hunier, to foot the topsail out of the top.

c. 1860.  H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 49. When the yard is crossed the masthead men parrel the yard and foot it amidships, and bend topgallant gear.

  d.  intr. or absol. To use the feet in kicking; to do ‘foot-work.’ colloq. (Football).

1851.  Bristed, The Upper Ten Thousand, ix. 223–4. As both teams were footing their very best, Masters’ only chance of getting by was in case one of the tandem nags should happen to break, a chance which he kept ready to take advantage of.

  6.  trans. Of a bird of prey (esp. a hawk): To seize or clutch with the talons. Also fig.

1575.  Turberv., Faulconrie, 130. Throwe hir out the lewre, and let hir foote a henne or a pullet, and kill it, and feede hir well therevppon.

1600.  Surflet, Countrie Farme, I. xvii. 111. There is a certaine kinde of swanne which hath his right foote deuided into fingers and fashioned with nailes and clawes or talons, as birdes of the pray haue, whereupon in striking into the water he catcheth and footeth his pray, but his left foote is fashioned after the common manners of others, and with it he roweth vpon the water.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., V. iv. 116.

1642.  Milton, An Apology against Smectymnuus (1851), 276. Now trust me not, Readers, if I be not already weary of pluming and footing this Seagull, so open he lies to strokes.

1891.  Harting, Bibl. Accipitr., Gloss., Foot, to clutch.

  absol.  1879.  Radcliffe in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), IX. 7/1. A hawk is said to ‘foot’ well or to be a ‘good footer’ when she is successful in killing.

  7.  To follow the tracks of; to trace. Also absol.

1772.  T. Simpson, Vermin-Killer, 7–8. Take a red herring, tie a string to the tail and draw it round the buildings, then through the hole to the place where the cage stands, and the Rats will run it like a dog footing a hare.

1829.  Sporting Mag., XXIV. Aug., 292–3. The partridges lay tolerably; quails squatted till the dogs footed up to their very tails, especially in some seed clover.

1886.  S. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v., ‘There was snow on the ground, and they footed him to the pond.’

  8.  To make, add, or attach a foot to.

1465.  [see FOREFOOT v.].

1570.  Levins, Manip., 178. To Foote a stoole, pedem addere.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 130. Ere I leade this life longe; Ile sowe nether-stockes, and mend them; and foote them too.

1609.  C. Butler, Fem. Mon., ii. E iij. The stone-stooles must bee footed as they may: the fashion of each place where they are vsed will direct you.

1663.  Cowley, Cutter of Coleman St., IV. vi. She shall foot Stockings in a Stall for me, or make Childrens Caps in a Garret fifteen Stories high.

1771.  Smollett, Humph. Cl., I. Let. ii. The stockings which his wife footed for me.

1852.  Hawthorne, Blithedale Rom., v. (1883), 356. Good Mrs. Foster took her knitting-work, and soon fell fast asleep, still keeping ner needles in brisk movement, and, to the best of my observation, absolutely footing a stocking out of the texture of a dream.

  9.  † a. To end (a letter) with a postscript. Obs.

1648.  Evelyn, Lett. to Sir R. Browne, 5 June, Postscript. I would foot this letter with what I have since learned; but how true, I leave to time.

  b.  To add up and set the sum at the foot of (an account, bill, etc.); to reckon or sum up. Now usually with up. Chiefly dial. and colloq.

1490.  Acta Dom. Conc. (1839), 176/2. The tyme that his compt wes futit.

1828.  Webster, s.v. To foot an account.

1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxxv. The wall-paper was defaced, in spots, by slops of beer and wine; or garnished with chalk memorandums, and long sums footed up, as if somebody had been practising arithmetic there.

1873.  J. Richards, Wood-working Factories, 80. The repairing about a wood-manufacturing establishment, including the renewal of cutters, tools, belts, or saws, that are regularly worn out, and the breakages from accident, if footed up at the end of each year, would in most cases equal, and in not a few exceed, the clear earnings.

  fig.  1883.  Anna Bowman Blake, Roman Carnival Sketches, in Harper’s Mag., LXVI. May, 893/2. Their handsome owner was doing a little sum in social arithmetic. He was footing me up, as it were; it was evident that the sum of my implied experience in dealing with extortion had produced its effect.

  c.  colloq. To pay or settle (a bill).

1848.  Durivage, Stray Subj., 183. In the event of failure to start the glutton, we were to pay the expenses; if our plan succeeded, the landlord was to foot the bill, and ‘stand treat.’

1891.  Leeds Mercury, 18 July, 6/7. The annual bill we foot is, after all, small compared with that of France.

  d.  intr. Of an account, number of items, etc.: To mount or total up to (a certain sum). Const. with or without to.

1867.  Times, 19 Sept., 10 The united debts of the colony foot up something like £250,000.

1893.  Peel, Spen Valley, 224. His total losses footed up to £5000.

  † 10.  trans. ? To fewter (a spear). Sc. Obs.

a. 1557.  Diurnal Occurrents (1833), 45. The Scottis, quha futtit thair speris, and slew the bairdit horse and men, to the nomber of thre scoir.

  11.  To admit (a new hand) on payment of a FOOTING.

1825.  Examiner, 285/2. The workmen … had been partaking of some liquor … on account of footing a new comer.

  † 12.  ? To sing the ‘foot’ or burden to (a song).

a. 1553.  Udall, Royster D., I. iv. (Arb.), 30. I will by myne owne selfe foote the song perchaunce.