foot 
nounciug a syllable is almost entirely disregarded. In 
the poetry of the Greeks, Romans, Hindus, and other na- 
tions in whose languages the syllabic accent was chiefly a 
matter of tone or pitch, quantity that is the length of 
time taken in pronouncing each syllable determined the 
rhythm. In Greek and Konian rhythmics and metrics a 
unit of time is assumed, called a primary or fundamental 
fin/' or tnora, or specifically a time, and this is regarded 
as the ordinary or normal short (marked <->), and expressed 
in verbal composition by a short syllable. The ordinary 
or normal long (marked ) is equal to two times or more, 
and is expressed by a long syllable. Metrical classification 
of such feet is based either on metrical magnitude that 
is, on the length of the foot as measured in mor&e or times, 
each long being reckoned as two shorts or on the pedal 
ratio that is, the proportion of the number of times in 
the thesis to that in the arsis. 
From long to long in solemn sort 
Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot .' yet ill able 
Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable. 
Coleridge, Metrical Feet 
12. In music : (a) A drone-bass. (6) A chorus 
or refrain; a burden, (c) In organ-building: 
(1) The part of a pipe below its mouth. (2) A 
measure or name used in denoting the pitch of 
stops. The standard of reference is the length of an open 
pipe belonging to the second C below middle C. A unison 
atop is called an 8-foot stop, because in this case the pipe 
is about 8 feet long. Similarly, an octave stop is called 
a 4-foot stop ; a double or suboctave stop, a 16-foot stop, 
etc. (See stop.) The usage has been extended to the desig- 
nation of the pitch of particular tones and of instruments. 
Thus, the second C below middle C is called 8-foot C, and 
all the tones in the octave above It 8-foot tones, or tones 
in the 8-foot octave, while the first C below middle C is 
called 4-foot C, etc. Thus, also, the piccolo is called a 
4-foot instrument, because its tones are an octave above 
the notes written. 
13. The commercial name for one of the small 
plates of tortoise-shell which line the carapace : 
commonly used in the plural. 14. One of the 
small marginal plates of the upper shell of the 
hawkbill turtle. Also called nose. 15f. Sedi- 
ment: same &s foots. 
Much of this Waxe had a great foote and is not^so faire 
waxe as in times past wee haue had. You must cause the 
foote to bee taken off before you doe weigh it. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, 1. 306. 
Accentual feet. See accentual. Ball Of the foot See 
balll. By foot, by walking. Cubic foot, a cube whose 
side is one foot, and which therefore contains 1,728 cubic 
inches. Dactylic foot. See isorrhythmic. Druid's 
foot. See Druid. Drusian foot. See Drusianl. 
False feet (a) In Protozoa, pseudopods. (6) In Cnw- 
tacea, the swimming-feet or abdominal appendages. 
Foot-and-mouth disease, aphthae epizootics, a conta- 
gious affection which attacks cattle and other animals, 
manifesting itself by lameness, indisposition to eat, and 
general febrile symptoms, with eruptions of small vesicles 
on the feet, in the mouth, and elsewhere. It may be com- 
municated to persons who drink the unboiled milk of 
cows affected with the disease. Foot Of a fine. See 
jinei. Fungus foot of India, Madura foot Same 
as mycetoma. Geometrical or philosophical foot, a 
foot in use in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by 
writers of all countries, equal, according to the researches 
of De Morgan, to about 9.8 English inches. 
An inch [is] one-tenth of a philosophical foot. 
Locke, Human Understanding, IV. x. 10, note. 
On foot, (a) Standing or moving on the feet ; afoot. 
And Vlttn light down on foote to sp{e]ke with this man, 
and hym axed what he was. Merlin (E. E. T. 8.), i. 72. 
To come onfote to hunt and shote 
To get us mete in store. 
The Xut-Brown Maid (Percy's Reliques, p. 182). 
Though I got very close up to my game, they were on 
foot before I saw them, and I did not get a standing shot. 
T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, p. 301. 
(/*) In health or activity ; able to go about. [Colloq.] (c) 
In progress ; going on. 
It was a glorious July morning, and there was nothing 
particular on foot. In the afternoon, there would be 
drives and walks, perhaps. 
Mrs. Whitney, Leslie Ooldthwaite, viii. 
Square foot, a square whose side is one foot, and which 
therefore contains 144 square inches. To bind or tie 
hand and foot See hand. To brace the feet, to 
understand (something); be or become posted (on any 
subject) ; learn or know the ropes : a sailors' phrase, 
apparently from the literal bracing of the feet in the rig- 
ging of a ship. To cover the feet, in Scrip., to ease 
nature. 
And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a 
cave ; and Saul went in to cover MB feet. 1 Sam. xxiv. 3. 
To fall on one's feet, to find one's feet. See the verbs. 
To keep one's foott, to maintain proper conduct. 
Keep thy/oo< when thou goest to the house of God. 
Eccl. v. 1. 
To know the length of one's foot, to understand a per- 
son thoroughly ; take his measure. 
Nosce teipsum, take the length of your own foot. 
Withal*. 
To put one's best foot forward or foremost, (a) To 
use all possible despatch. 
But put your beet foot forward, or I fear 
That we shall miss the mail. 
Tennyson, Walking to the Mail. 
(6) To appear to the best advantage ; make as good an ap- 
pearance or impression as possible ; use one's most effec- 
tive resources ; do one's very best. To put one's foot In 
it, to spoil a thing completely ; ruin it ; make a mess of 
it; get one's self into a scrape. To put one's foot Into, 
to enter Into ; join in. 
2310 
The Dutch Captain here put his foot into the conversa- 
tion. 0. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. (M. 
To set on foot, to originate ; begin ; put in motion : us, 
to set on foot a subscription. 
Such designs are generally set on foot by the secret mo- 
tion and instigation of the peers and nobles. 
Bacon, Political Fables, viii., Exjil. 
He, then, who sets a colony on foot, designs a great work. 
K. Choate, Addresses, p. 90. 
To take foott, to take to one's heels. 
Come on to me now, Livingston, 
Or then take foot and flee. 
Lord Livingston (Child's Ballads, III. 346). 
Washing Of feet, a ceremony in the Roman Catholic, 
Greek, Russian, and some other churches, as those of the 
Dunkers, Wiuebrennerians, etc., in commemoration of 
Christ's washing of the feet of his disciples after the last 
sii i ,] NT (.1 < ili 1 1 xiii. 4-17), both as a symbol of spiritual cleans- 
ing and as alesson to them of humility and good will. The 
washing of others' feet, for their relief from the effects of 
exposure in a hot climate with but slight or no covering, 
has always been a common practice in Oriental countries, 
generally performed by menials ; and religious ideas have 
often been associated with the practice. In the Roman 
Catholic Church the ceremony is observed on Thursday 
of Holy Week. The pope washes the feet of thirteen poor 
priests, and the principal priests or prelates of the Roman 
Catholic churches wash the feet of twelve poor persons. 
The ceremony is also called mandatum or maundy. See 
Maundy Thursday. 
foot (fut), v. [<foot, .] I. intrans. 1. To go 
on foot ; walk. 
The little girls were timid and grave. As they footed 
slowly up the aisle, each one took a moment's glance at 
the Englishman. /;. /.. Steoenson, Inland Voyage, p. 193. 
2. To tread to measure or music ; dance ; skip. 
He saw a quire of ladies in a round, 
That featly/oo(tn seem'd to skim the ground. 
Dryden, Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 216. 
My feet, which only nature taught to go, 
Did never yet the art of footing know. 
Sir J. Davies, Dancing. 
3. In falconry, to seize the game with the tal- 
ons and kill it. 
A hawk is said to foot well, or to be a good footer, when 
she is successful in killing. Many hawks are very fine fly- 
ers without being good footers. Kncyc. Brit., IX. 7. 
4. To amount to: sum up: as, their purchases 
footed up pretty nigh. [Colloq.] 
II. trans. 1. To tread with the feet, as in 
walking; traverse on foot; pass over by walk- 
ing: as, to foot the green; to foot the whole 
distance. 
Swithold/oo(d thrice the old [wold]. 
Shak., Lear, iii. 4. 
Then aye he harped, and aye he carped, 
Till a' the lordlings/outed the floor. 
Lochmabtn Harper (Child's Ballads, VI. 8). 
2. To strike with the foot; kick; spurn. 
You, that did void your rheum upon my leard, 
Anil foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur, 
Over your threshold. Shak., M. of V., i. 3. 
For there the pride of all her heart will IKJW, 
When you shall/oof her from you, not she you. 
Beau, and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, v. 1. 
3. To fix firmly on the feet; set up ; settle; es- 
tablish. 
Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king 
Come here himself to question our delay ; 
For he is footed in this land already. 
Shak., Hen. V., ii. 4. 
What confederacy have you with the traitors 
Late Sooted in the kingdom? Shak., Lear, iii. 7. 
4f. To seize with the foot or feet, or paws or 
talons. 
The holy eagle 
Stoop'd, as to foot us. 
Shak., Cymbeline, v. 4. 
5. To add or make a foot to : as, to foot a stock- 
ing or boot. 
80 women were carried in chaires footed with gold, and 
600 in others footed with silver, very sumptuously attired. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 85. 
6. To add, as the numbers in a column, and 
set the sum at the foot: generally with up: as, 
to foot up an account. 7. To pay; liquidate: 
as, to foot the bill. [Colloq., U. 8.] To foot 
her UP, in seine-fishing, to keep the bottom of the net 
from lifting from the ground during the process of haul- 
ing, by putting first one foot and then the other on its 
lower edge. To foot It. (a) To walk. 
Who that has seen it can forget . . . the strange, elas- 
tic rhythm of the whole regiment footing it in time? 
K. L. Stevenson, Inland Voyage, p. 203. 
(6) To dance. 
Lo ! how finely the Graces can it foote 
To the Instrument. Spenser, Shep. Cal., April. 
I'd foot it with e'er a captain in the county ; but these 
outlandish heathen allemandes and cotillons are quite be- 
yond me. Sheridan, The Rivals, iii. 4. 
foot-artillery (fut'ar-til'e-ri), . See phrase 
under artillery. 
footback (fut'bak), K. [< foot + 6ac*l.] Foot: 
a humorous imitation of horseback. 
footboy 
Tolossa hath forgot that it was sometime sackt, and beg. 
gars that euer they carried their fardles on footback. 
Xavh, Pref. to Greene's Menaphon. 
foot-balistert (fut'baFis-ti-r), . An unmount- 
ed archer. 
foot-ball (fut'bal), n. 1. A ball consisting ori- 
ginally of an inflated bladder, now of a hollow 
globe of india-rubber or of heavy canvas satu- 
rated with rubber, cased iu leather, round or 
oval in shape, and designed to be driven by 
the foot iu the game called by the same name. 
See def. 2. 
The sturdle plowman, lustie, strong, and bold, 
Overcometh the winter with driving Hie foote-ball, 
Forgetting labour and many a grievous fall. 
Alex. Barclay, quoted in Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 
[p. 169. 
2. A game played with such a ball by two par- 
ties of players on a level plot of ground, at each 
end of which is a goal through or beyond which 
the players strive to drive the ball. There are va- 
rious ways of playing the game, the two most commonly 
recognized being the "Association" and the "Rugby" 
game, the latter either in its original form or as played in 
America in a modified fonn. The field is 330 feet long by 
160 wide, and in the middle of each end is a goal formed of 
two upright posts, in the Rugby game 18 j feet apart with a 
cross-bar 10 feet above the ground, and in the Association 
game 24 feet apart with a cross-bar 8 feet from the ground. 
There are 11 players on each side (in the Rugby game 
sometimes 1.',). divided into rushers and backs; the spe- 
cial object of the former being to check their opponents 
and to rush or push forward the ball in a body, and of the 
latter to kick or run with the ball. The two sides cast 
lots for choice of goals, that side not winning the choice 
having the ball when the game is begun. In the Rugby 
game the players can kick, run with, or throw the ball 
(but not throw it forward toward their opponents' goal) ; 
in the Association game they can only kick it. The play- 
ing is begun by kicking off the ball from midway between 
the goals, and the players strive to force the ball through 
or beyond their opponents' goal. In the Association game, 
to win a goal the ball must be kicked through the goal 
below the cross-bar, and the side securing the largest num- 
ber of goals wins the game. In the Rugby game scoring 
is by goals, touch-dotrns, and safety touch-downs or safeties. 
A goal is won by kicking the ball through or above the 
goal-posts over the cross-bar ; a touch-down, by carrying 
the ball behind the goal and there touching it to the 
ground, which gives the playeratrj/ that is, the right to 
carry the ball out in front of the goal and try to kick a goal ; 
a safety touch-down or safety, by forcing one's opponents 
to touch the ball to the ground behind one's own goal. The 
play continues for a certain length of time, generally an 
nour and a half, divided into two parts by a short inter- 
mission, at which time the players change sides. Foot- 
ball is an ancient game, probably introduced into Great 
Britain by the Romans, though the first distinct mention 
of it is in Fitzstephen's History of London, about 1175. 
Stew. I'll not be strucken, my lord. 
Kent. Nor tripped neither ; you base foot-ball player. 
[Tripping up his heels.] Shak., Lear, i. 4. 
The danger attending this pastime occasioned king 
James I. to say, " From this court I debarre all rough and 
violent exercises, as the/oo(-6n((, meeter for lameing than 
making able the users thereof." 
Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 169. 
3. Figuratively, an object or a person sub- 
jected to hard usage or to many vicissitudes or 
changes of condition: as, he was the foot-ball 
of fortune. 
foot-band (fut'band), w. [_<foot + bands.] A 
band of infantry. 
foot-bank (fut'bangk), n. In fort., a raised way 
along the inside of a parapet; a banquette. 
foot-barracks (fut'bar"aks), . pi. Barracks 
for infantry. 
foot-base (fut'bas), n. In arcli., a molding above 
a plinth, 
foot-bath (fut'bath), n. 1. The act of bathing 
the feet. 2. A vessel for bathing or washing 
the feet. 
foot-bench (fut'bench), n. A low bench for 
several persons sitting in a row to rest their 
feet upon, as in a church pew or the like. 
foot-blower (fufblo'er), n. A bellows worked 
by the foot. 
A foot-blower, from which the blast is created by air- 
pressure, caused by repeated strokes of a pair of bellows 
filling an elastic air-reservoir. W. A. Jioss, Blowpipe, p. 1. 
foot-board (fut'bord), n. 1. A support for the 
foot, as in a boat or carriage, or at a workman's 
bench. 2. An upright piece across the foot of 
a bedstead. 3. The platform on which the 
driver and fireman of a locomotive engine 
stand; a foot-plate. 4. A small platform at 
the back of a carriage on which the footman 
stands. 
footboy (fut'boi), n. [< foot + boy. Cf. the 
older term footknavc.] A boy in waiting; an 
attendant in livery ; a lackey; a link-boy. 
The high promotion of his grace of Canterbury, 
Who holds his state at door, 'mongst pursuivants, 
Pages, and footboys. Shak., Hen. VIII., v. 2. 
O, sir, his lackey, ... a monster, a very monster in ap- 
parel ; and not like a Christian footboy, or a gentleman's 
lackey. Shak., T. of the S., iii. 2. 
