footpad Obs. exc. Hist.
(ˈfʊtpæd)
[See pad.]
A highwayman who robs on foot.
| 1683 Dryden & Lee Duke of Guise Ded., Though they assault us like footpads in the dark. 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Subj. for Paint. Wks. 1812 II. 179 I'm no Highwayman. No, there you are right. A Footpad only. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge ii, Roads in the neighbourhood of the metropolis were infested by footpads or highwaymen. |
Hence ˈfootpad v., to play the footpad; ˈfootpadding vbl. n. and ppl. a. Also ˈfootpaddery, -padry (nonce-wd.), the occupation of a foot-pad.
| 1735 in W. C. Sydney Eng. 18th C. (1891) II. 282 Five condemned malefactors were executed at Tyburn, viz. Kiffe and Wilson for footpadding [etc.]. 1790 Burns Let. to Cunningham 13 Feb., A glass of whisky-toddy with a ruby-nosed yoke-fellow of a foot-padding exciseman. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. ciii. 7 From foot-padding upwards, it is always desirable to get at the principle. 1861 Ibid. III. clxxviii. 215 Highwaymanhood and foot-padry. 1874 W. C. Smith Borland Hall 152 I'd sooner footpad it, and steal and rob. 1889 Doyle Micah Clarke xxiii, They did not, as a rule, descend to footpaddery or robbery. |