foot

Less common meanings

7. 7
   payverbtransitive

   To pay a bill or cover the full cost of something.

   Taxpayers ultimately foot the bill for the repairs.

   He offered to foot the entire dinner tab.

   UsageNearly always in foot the bill: pay for something, often something costly.

   Similarpay, cover, settle, meet

   Note

   The verb draws on the older practice of totaling figures at the foot of an account, which is the work of the bookkeeping verb. Paying grew out of adding up. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The expression is connected with the amount at the bottom, or foot, of an account. archive.org
   • The bookkeeping verb foot means to total figures. horntip.com
   • The payment sense developed from the totaling sense. horntip.com
8. 8
   table endnouncountable

   The end of a bed, table, or similar thing opposite the head, where the feet rest or the less important people sit.

   The youngest guests were seated at the foot of the table.

   He carved the roast from the foot of the long banquet table.

   UsageUse the foot of the bed/table, often after at: at the foot of the bed, at the foot of the table.

   Similarbottom

   Oppositehead, top

9. 9
   standingnounarchaiccountable

   A footing or basis; the standing, condition, or principle on which something rests or is arranged.

   Note

   The idiom names a basis or a rank, and it is built the same way for both: one is on the foot of something. Horace Walpole, writing to Horace Mann in 1742, describes someone 'on the foot of a servant,' meaning treated with a servant's standing. The sense lingers in phrases like living on a grand foot; elsewhere footing has replaced it. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Foot has senses meaning a basis and a recognized condition or rank. en.wiktionary.org
   • Horace Walpole used 'on the foot of a servant' in a 1742 letter to Horace Mann. gutenberg.org
   • The quotation refers to someone's standing as a servant. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    infantrynouncollectiveuncountable

    Soldiers who fight on foot, considered collectively; the infantry.

    The king's foot advanced under cover of darkness.

    Cavalry charged the flank while the foot held the line.

    Similarinfantry

    Oppositehorse, cavalry

    Note

    A collective that never takes an s: ten thousand foot and one thousand horse, or, in the Earl of Clarendon's phrase, forces that 'amounted really but to eighteen hundred foot.' Foot and horse travel together for infantry and cavalry, each counted as a mass. The usage belongs to older warfare and military history; today infantry is the ordinary word. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Military foot retains its form when referring to multiple soldiers, without adding s. gutenberg.org
    • The Earl of Clarendon wrote the quoted words, including the number eighteen hundred. en.wiktionary.org
    • Foot and horse designate infantry and cavalry respectively. gutenberg.org
11. 11
    volume unitnouncolloquialabbreviationellipsis

    Short for cubic foot: a unit of volume equal to a cube one foot on each side, used especially for measuring natural gas.

    The pipeline moved over a million feet of gas through the valley each day.

    In those days, natural gas sold for well under a cent a foot.

    Note

    Volume gets the same informal clipping as the clipped unit of area: cubic drops away, and the word stands for a cube one foot on each side, about 28.32 liters. It turns up where gas or bulk material is measured by volume, and only when the context already makes the unit clear. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Foot informally abbreviates cubic foot, just as it abbreviates square foot. en.wiktionary.org
    • A cubic foot is the volume of a cube with sides one foot long. en.wikipedia.org
    • A cubic foot is approximately 28.32 liters. nist.gov
12. 12
    walkverbtransitive

    To travel somewhere by walking; to go on foot.

    With no taxi in sight, they decided to foot it to the station.

    She footed it the last mile to the cabin.

    UsageUsually used with it: foot it to the station.

    Similarhoof, walk, trek, hike

    Note

    Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor (first published in 1602) uses the verb bare, with no object: 'thieves do foot by night.' Modern English rarely does. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • William Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor. en.wikipedia.org
    • The play contains 'thieves do foot by night', with foot used without an object; the speaker is Pistol. folger.edu
13. 13
    snail musclenouncountable

    The muscular organ of a snail, clam, or similar mollusk, used to move along or to grip a surface.

    The mussel extends its foot to anchor itself firmly among the rocks.

    A garden snail glides along on the broad sole of its foot.

    Note

    One organ does different work in different mollusks. In many bivalves it is hatchet-shaped and pushed out by fluid pressure to burrow or anchor; in snails and other gastropods it spreads into the broad sole they creep on. Because it is a single muscular part, a snail or mussel has one foot, not feet. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The molluscan foot is a muscular organ adapted for different functions in different groups. manoa.hawaii.edu
    • Many bivalves have a hatchet-shaped foot adapted for burrowing. qrius.si.edu
    • Bivalves use a hydraulic mechanism involving body fluids to operate the foot during burrowing and anchoring. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
    • The gastropod foot forms a broad sole that contacts the surface during crawling. lanwebs.lander.edu
    • A snail has one muscular foot. manoa.hawaii.edu
    • A mussel has one foot. dnr.illinois.gov
14. 14
    poetry rhythmnouncountable

    A metrical unit of syllables forming a rhythmic pattern in verse, or a grouping organized around stress in speech.

    An iamb is a foot with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.

    Scanning the verse, she marked each foot with a small slash.

    Note

    Verse is scanned by these units. Reading a line closely, one marks where each foot ends and names the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables inside it, and a line's meter is described by the kind of foot it repeats. The plural is always feet, never foots. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Scansion includes marking the divisions between metrical feet. mason.gmu.edu
    • Metrical feet have named patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. open.edu
    • A meter is described by its recurring type of foot. poetry.harvard.edu
    • The standard plural of metrical foot is metrical feet. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    verbtransitive

    To kick something, usually a ball, using the foot.

    Rather than risk a fumble on the slippery grass, the flanker chose to foot the loose ball toward the corner.

    With the ball bouncing loose in the mud, the winger footed it forward and chased it toward the try line.

    Similarkick, boot

16. 16
    sewing machinenouncountable

    The part of a sewing machine that presses down on the fabric and may also help move it forward.

    She raised the foot to slide the finished fabric out.

    A worn foot can let the cloth bunch up while stitching.

    Note

    Working beside the needle, the foot holds the cloth flat against the feed below while each stitch is made, and on some machines it also pushes the fabric along. Sewers raise it to slide work in or out and lower it again before they begin stitching. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The foot works beside the needle and holds fabric flat against the feed dogs during stitching. en.wikipedia.org
    • Some feet also help move the fabric forward. brother-usa.com
    • The foot is raised to insert or remove fabric. help.brother-usa.com
    • The foot is lowered before stitching begins. help.brother-usa.com
17. 17
    add upverbtransitive

    To find the total of a set of figures, such as a column; sometimes followed by up.

    Accountants foot every column before signing off on the ledger.

    She footed up the day's takings and found a small error.

    Similartotal, tally, add, sum

    Note

    Bookkeepers use it transitively, with or without up: one foots an account, or foots up a column, and the particle changes nothing in the meaning. The sum is written beneath the figures it totals, and that habit is the link to footing the bill. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • To foot an account or column means to total it, with or without up. en.wiktionary.org
    • The total appears beneath the figures being added. accountingcoach.com
    • Footing the bill is connected with paying the total at the bottom of an account. horntip.com
18. 18
    nouncountable

    In a sock, stocking, or garment with built-in feet, the part below the ankle that holds the wearer's foot.

    She knits the leg of the stocking first, then turns the heel and works the foot down to the toe.

    The foot of these hiking socks is cushioned, while the leg is thin and breathable.

    Note

    Knitters treat a sock as a run of parts: leg, heel, foot and toe. In top-down patterns the foot is the stretch worked after the heel is turned and before the toe is shaped, a narrower span than everything below the ankle. Because that part can be knitted again on its own, English also has a verb for renewing it: to foot a stocking. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Knitters distinguish the leg, heel, foot and toe as parts of a sock. bluesteelknits.wordpress.com
    • This order applies to conventional top-down patterns. Toe-up patterns work the toe and foot before the heel. knitty.com
    • Patterns can distinguish the foot section from the heel and toe, making it narrower than the whole portion below the ankle. gutenberg.org
    • Worn portions of a knitted sock's foot can be knitted again separately. gutenberg.org
    • To foot a stocking means to renew its foot. gutenberg.org
19. 19
    noun

    On a pool or billiard table, the end beyond the foot spot, which is where the rack of balls is set up.
20. 20
    noun

    The bottom edge of a sail, running horizontally along its lower side.
21. 21
    noun

    The end of a cigar that is lit, opposite the end held in the mouth.
22. 22
    noun

    The point at which a line meets another line that is perpendicular to it.
23. 23
    verbarchaic

    To move the feet in time to music; to dance, skip, or trip lightly.

    There's time enough, I hope, To foot a measure with the bonnie bride,

    1836, Joanna Baillie, The Phantom
24. 24
    noun

    In organ building, a unit indicating a stop’s pitch by the approximate length of an equivalent open pipe for its lowest note. Eight-foot stops sound at normal pitch.
25. 25
    noun

    The part of a bryophyte's sporophyte that remains embedded in and attached to the parent gametophyte.
26. 26
    noun

    The base of a piece of metal type, forming the sides of the groove along the bottom.
27. 27
    noun

    The rounded, compact domain at the bottom end of a protein's structure.
28. 28
    verbarchaic

    To walk over or tread upon a place.

    People who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in and did not come to the house.

    1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
29. 29
    verbobsolete

    To start or found something, or to bring someone or something ashore.

    What confederacy have you with the traitors / Late footed in the kingdom?

    c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”
30. 30
    verb

    To repair a sock or stocking by replacing its worn foot section.
31. 31
    verbIreland

    To stand cut peat sods together in small piles so the air can dry them.