[See HOLD sb.]

1

  1.  A hold or support for the feet: a surface (secure or otherwise) for standing or walking on; firm or stable position of the feet.

2

1625.  F. Markham, Bk. Hon., V. ii. 166. By the onely readie and perfit Scale, (where is neither slipperie foot-holde, nor tottering ascent; where neither the pauement can cracke vnder them, nor the Roofe fall downe vpon them) they haue (by the hande of Prouidence) risen safely.

3

1692.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, vi. He has nothing above him to Aspire to, nor any Foot-Hold left him to come down by.

4

1837.  W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, II. 222. The snow was from two to three feet deep, but soft and yielding, so that the horses had no foothold, but kept plunging forward, straining themselves by perpetual efforts.

5

1871.  L. Stephen, Playgr. Europe, iv. (1894), 102. It was impossible to cut steps in it [ice] deep enough to afford secure foothold.

6

  b.  transf.

7

1692.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, cccxxxiii. 291. They all fell to Work at the Roots of the Tree, and left it so little Foot-hold, that the first Blast of Wind laid it Flat upon the Ground, Nest, Eagles, and all.

8

1880.  Emily Pfeiffer, The Pillar of Praise, in The Contemporary Review, XXXVII. March, 418.

        The soul of things is strong as is well shown:
      The hyssop finds firm foot-hold in the wall;
A seedling’s heaving heart hath moved a stone,
      Bare rock maintains the stately pines and tall.

9

1890.  Home & Ch. St. Gregory the Great, 10. The insertion of new foundations under the pillars, which were supported while workmen removed their footholds and supplied firmer foundations.

10

  c.  fig.

11

1660.  H. More, An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, I. v. 15. From whence Pythagoras and Plato had it, and prepared those parts of the World where their Philosophy had taken foot-hold, to an easy reception of Christianity.

12

1855.  H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Lit., iv. (1878), 150. The higher civilization in Spain, both Moorish and Christian, and the struggle for centuries between the two races, as the Saracen was driven slowly from his last foothold in the west of Europe.

13

1864.  Theolog. Rev., March, 19. The unhappy restlessness, as one foothold of belief after another is taken away, and all certainty seems to vanish in blinding mist.

14

  2.  ? U.S. ‘A kind of light india-rubber overshoe, leaving the heel unprotected; a sandal. Sometimes called a tip.’ (Cent. Dict.)

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