a. [SURE a. 4 b.]
1. Sure of foot; treading securely or firmly; not liable to slip, stumble or fall.
1707. [implied in surefootedness].
1764. Smollett, Trav., xx. (1766), I. 313. The mules of Piedmont … are the only carriage that can be used in crossing the mountains, being very sure-footed.
1834. Caunter, Orient. Ann., xv. 207. The elephant is remarkably surefooted, seldom stumbling, and much more rarely falling.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 425. A few sure-footed landsknechts … guarded the steps of their veteran leader; and thus … he traversed the terrific pass.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 12 Sept., 7/2. Hills … so steep that even the sure-footed hill cattle could not tread them.
2. fig. Not liable to make a ‘slip’ or error; proceeding surely; unerring.
1633. Herbert, Temple, Dotage, ii. True earnest sorrows, rooted miseries,… Sure footed griefs, solid calamities.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 170. Thus that safe and sure-footed Interpreter, Alex. Aphrodisius, expounds his Masters Meaning.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 257. The one human being who was able to mislead that farsighted and surefooted judgment.
1864. Lowell, Lincoln, Wks. 1890, V. 199. Worthy of his cautious but sure-footed understanding.
Hence Surefootedly adv. (in recent Dicts.), Surefootedness; so † Sure-footing.
1665. J. Sergeant (title), Sure-footing in Christianity, or Rational Discourses on The Rule of Faith.
1702. Penn, Maxims, Wks. 1726, I. 847. The Wise Man … has in every Thing an Eye to Sure-Footing.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 224. [Mules] are the best sort of Creatures … for Burden and Surefootedness.
1869. W. B. Rands (‘M. Browne’), Chaucer’s Eng., I. i. 8. The sensitive ground which he [Chaucer] sometimes touches with logical sure-footedness in that remarkable book [Testament of Love].
1869. Pall Mall G., 14 July, 7/1. It is said also in Saas that the sturdy old mountaineer’s eyesight was failing, and that he had lost of late some of the sure-footedness for which he has been famous.
