▪ I. ˈunderfoot, a.
[Attrib. use of underfoot adv.]
1. Lying under the foot or feet. Also spec. (see quots. 1824, 1844), and applied to the state of the going in Horse-racing.
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden K 4, The strange vntraffiqu't phrases,..as of incendarie for fire,..an vnder foote abiect for a shooe or a boote. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 454 Underfit peats, peat turf, digged beneath the foot not in the common way of cutting them of a breest. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 318 In the under-foot wheel, the horses draw by means of trace-chains and swing-tree. 1976 Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 9 Dec., Underfoot conditions at Chelmsford made it difficult for everyone. 1979 Oxford Times (City ed.) 5 Jan. 6 They [sc. postmen] begin their round in darkness before underfoot conditions have a chance to improve. |
2. Inferior, abject, low, downtrodden.
| 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. B 1 b, Euerie vnder-foot souldior had a distenanted tun, as Diogenes had his tub to sleepe in. 1641 Milton Reform. ii. 90 The most dejected, most underfoot and downe-trodden Vassals of Perdition. 1645 ― Tetrach. 17 What a stupidnes then is it, that..wee should deject our selvs to such a sluggish and underfoot Philosophy. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. iii, My School⁓master, a downbent, brokenhearted, underfoot martyr. |
▪ II. underˈfoot, v.
[under-1 4 a.]
trans. To provide with (new) footings or bases.
| 1870 Baines' Hist. Lancs. II. 27 In 1815 some of the pillars of the N. aisle having given way,..they were all skilfully underfooted and restored. |
▪ III. ˈunderfoot, n. rare.
[f. the adv.]
The surface of the ground at the foot of a tree.
| 1910 W. De Morgan Affair of Dishonour iv. 50 This morning was no time for breakfast under the cedar trees. For all the underfoot, where grass grew, was no better than a sponge. 1959 E. Collier Three against Wilderness xxiv. 248 No flame could lick far into the forests so long as their underfoot was moist. |