Etymology
From Middle English fot, fote, foot, from Old English fÅt, from Proto-West Germanic *fÅt, from Proto-Germanic *fÅts, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds.
Noun
foot (plural feet)
- A biological structure found in many animals that is used for locomotion and that is frequently a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg.
- A spider has eight feet.
- (anatomy) Specifically, a human foot, which is found below the ankle and is used for standing and walking.
- Southern Italy is shaped like a foot.
- Travel by walking.
- We went there by foot because we could not afford a taxi.
- There is a lot of foot traffic on this street.
- The base or bottom of anything.
- I'll meet you at the foot of the stairs.
- The part of a flat surface on which the feet customarily rest.
- We came and stood at the foot of the bed.
- The end of a rectangular table opposite the head.
- The host should sit at the foot of the table.
- A short foot-like projection on the bottom of an object to support it.
- The feet of the stove hold it a safe distance above the floor.
- A unit of measure equal to twelve inches or one third of a yard, equal to exactly 30.48 centimeters.
- The flagpole at the local high school is about twenty feet high.
- (music) A unit of measure for organ pipes equal to the wavelength of two octaves above middle C, approximately 328 mm.
- (military) Foot soldiers; infantry.
- King John went to battle with ten thousand foot and one thousand horse.
- (sewing) The part of a sewing machine which presses downward on the fabric, and may also serve to move it forward.
- (printing) The bottommost part of a typed or printed page.
- (printing) The base of a piece of type, forming the sides of the groove.
- (prosody) The basic measure of rhythm in a poem.
- (phonology) The parsing of syllables into prosodic constituents, which are used to determine the placement of stress in languages along with the notions of constituent heads.
- (nautical) The bottom edge of a sail.
- To make the mainsail fuller in shape, the outhaul is eased to reduce the tension on the foot of the sail.
- (billiards) The end of a billiard or pool table behind the foot point where the balls are racked.
- (botany) In a bryophyte, that portion of a sporophyte which remains embedded within and attached to the parent gametophyte plant.
- (malacology) The muscular part of a bivalve mollusc or a gastropod by which it moves or holds its position on a surface.
- (molecular biology) The globular lower domain of a protein.
- (geometry) The point of intersection of one line with another that is perpendicular to it.
- Fundamental principle; basis; plan.
- Recognized condition; rank; footing.
Usage notes
The ordinary plural of the unit of measurement is feet, but in some contexts, foot itself may be used ("He is six foot two.") This is a reflex of the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) genitive plural. In the United Kingdom, however, foot is colloquially used as a plural in all contexts for the unit of measure, even where such usage would not be natural in other varieties of English.
It is sometimes abbreviated ', such as in tables, lists, or drawings.
Derived terms
- afoot
- athlete's foot
- Bigfoot
- cubic foot
- footage
- football
- foothill
- foothold
- footloose
- footman
- footnote
- footpath
- foot patrol
- foot-pound
- footprint
- foot race
- foot rest
- foot soldier
- footstep
- footstool
- foot-ton
- foot-travel
- footwear
- footwork
- linear foot
- metric foot
- rabbit's foot
- square foot
Verb
foot (third-person singular simple present foots, present participle footing, simple past and past participle footed)
- To use the foot to kick (usually a ball).
- To pay (a bill).
- To tread to measure of music; to dance; to trip; to skip.
- To walk.
- To renew the foot of (a stocking, etc.).
- To sum up, as the numbers in a column; sometimes with up.
Credits
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