ˈbare-ˌfooted, a.
[f. barefoot a. + -ed.]
a. = prec., and more frequently used by recent writers. Of a horse: having a shoeless foot. b. quasi-adv.
| a. c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 268 Chanons, preestes, and clarkes..all barefoted. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 109 Wee stoode..bare-footed and bare-headed. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. ii. 46 The Preacher was a bare⁓footed Franciscan. 1884 Queen Victoria More Leaves 123 Picturesque barefooted lasses. 1906 Somerville & ‘Ross’ Some Irish Yesterdays 88 ‘Ye're barefooted,’ he said. I found that I [i.e. my hunter] had indeed lost a foreshoe. |
| b. 1780 Coxe Russ. Disc. 104 The greatest part go bare⁓footed. 1847 Longfellow Ev. ii. i, Thus did that poor soul wander..Bleeding, barefooted over the shards and thorns. |
c. U.S. (See
quots. and
cf. barefoot a.)
| 1847 Paulding Amer. Comedies 194, I thought even a Yankee knew that ‘stone fence barefooted’ is the polite English for whisky uncontaminated,—pure, sir! 1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xii. 183 It was sod corn [sc. whisky] barefooted. |
Hence
bareˈfootedness.
| 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. 2 Orphans I. 74 Many worthy gentlemen are become egregious sufferers, both by the barefootedness of their horses and the loss of their hares. 1891 Athenæum 28 Nov. 714/1 The barefootedness of the women and children. |