ˈfoot-cloth
† 1. A large richly-ornamented cloth laid over the back of a horse and hanging down to the ground on each side. It was considered as a mark of dignity and state. Obs.
| 1480 Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 154 An herneys in russet velvet cloth of gold for an hakeney, and a footeclothe maade of russet velvet lyned with blac bokeram. 1589 Mar Martine 6 Plucke but the foote cloth from his backe, The Asse will soone be seene. 1612 W. Parkes Curtaine-Dr. (1876) 24 Sometimes he that robbes both Church and Common-wealth is seene to ride on his foot-cloth. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3842/1 The Town-Clerk with a Gold Chain, and his Footman and Footcloth. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. v. xvii, Fair Margaret on her palfrey came, Whose footcloth swept the ground. |
| fig. 1594 Nashe Vnfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 70 The scolasticall squitter bookes clout you vp cannopies & foot⁓clothes of verses. |
2. A cloth to set the feet upon, a carpet.
| 1639 Fuller Holy War iv. i. (1640) 165 Milain, and many other cities in Italy..danced at this musick, made a foot⁓cloth of their Master's livery. 1726–7 Swift Gulliver i. ii. 38 A foot-cloth for your majesty's chief room of state. 1824 Macaulay Ivry vi, Then on the ground..Fling the red shreds, a footcloth meet for Henry of Navarre. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iv. 267 On the..footcloth, lay The..child. |
† 3. attrib. and
Comb. (sense 1), as
foot-cloth horse,
foot-cloth mule,
foot-cloth nag,
foot-cloth-page,
foot-cloth-servant,
foot-cloth-strider.
| 1571 Sadler et al. Let. 7 Sept. in Murdin Coll. State Pap. (1759) 149 So havyng prepared a Fotecloth Nag for him..he was..quietly brought into the tower. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. i. 54 Hast thou not..Bare⁓headed plodded by my foot-cloth Mule. 1594 ― Rich. III, iii. iv. 86 Three times to day my Foot-Cloth-Horse did stumble. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes i. vii. 26 The Mule, and glorious Foot-cloath-pages, and Harbingers, are all too little for these Patriarchs. a 1658 Ford, etc. Witch Edmonton v. i, I'll..Serve some Briarean footcloth-strider. |