To pay the account.

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1844.  I’ll drink with him, for I promised to, even if I have to foot the bill.—‘Lowell Offering,’ iv. 76.

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1848.  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.’—Durivage and Burnham, ‘Stray Subjects,’ p. 183. (N.E.D.)

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1862.  

        While de bressed darkies dance their fill,
Let de white trash foot de fiddler’s bill.
‘Major Jack Downing,’ April 29.    

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