| 释义 |
ˈflat-ˈfooted, a.
(Stress equal or variable)
1. a. Having flat feet, i.e. feet with little or no hollow in the sole and a low instep. Of a horse: Having flat hoofs, with the soles near the ground.
1601Holland Pliny I. 351 There haue been now of late, Serpents knowne flat-footed like Geese. 1675Lond. Gaz. No. 979/4 Stolen a Gelding..flat-footed before. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. ix. 185/2 [A Grey-Hound] Long, and Flat-footed. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. 70 Pelicans are large flat-footed Fowls, almost as big as Geese. 1860Mayne Exp. Lex., Leiopodes, old term..applied by Galen..to those who were flat-footed.
b. transf. Of a rail = flat-bottomed.
1889G. Findlay Eng. Railway 42 The ‘fish-bellied’ rails were found troublesome to roll, and this led to the introduction of the flat-bottomed or ‘flat-footed’ section of rail.
2. a. colloq. (orig. U.S.) Downright, plain and positive; also, dead, insipid, maladroit. to come out flat-footed (for): to make a bold or positive statement of one's opinion, or the like.
1828A. Royall Black Bk. II. 114 He was one of your right down flat-footed ox-drivers. 1834Knickerbocker III. 35, I haint got no shoes, tis true, but I stand flat⁓footed and damn the man who can move me one inch. 1846N.Y. Herald 30 June (Bartlett), Mr. Pickens..has come out flat-footed for the administration. 1858Harper's Mag. Sept. 563 His..bold, flat-footed way of saying things. 1863Gray Lett. II. 504, Complaining of Lyell that he does not come out ‘flat-footed’ as we say, as an advocate of natural-selection transmutation. 1899Westm. Gaz. 6 Nov. 2/3 A flat-footed, commonplace scribbler of heroic verse. 1902Daily Chron. 14 Jan. 3/2 His ‘enigmatic smile’ and his flat-footed compliments. 1923Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Jan. 4/2 Histories of literature..in which the erudite..mind traverses with flat-footed thoroughness the country it has mapped out for itself. 1931W. G. McAdoo Crowded Years 367 Germany came out flat-footed with the belligerent warning..that she would engage in unrestricted submarine warfare. 1957R. Campbell Coll. Poems II. 111 Weird blue-stockings with damp, flatfooted minds. 1962Daily Mail 19 Jan. 3/8 It is time Associated-Rediffusion presented something less flat-footed and insipid.
b. U.S. Unready, not ‘on one's toes’.
1912in Amer. Speech (1951) XXVI. 31/1 (Baseball terminology) Flat-footed, unprepared, caught napping. 1928Funk's Stand. Dict., Flat-footed (slang). Racing. Standing still; unprepared: said of a horse when the jockey is not on the qui vive and expecting a start. 1940Topeka Jrnl. 14 Nov. 1/4 (AP), The Italians were caught flat-footed..and from that moment the story was one of deadly Greek bayonet charges. 1955H. Roth Sleeper ix. 68 A group of people who lie so shamelessly that they are constantly being caught flat-footed. 1963J. Joesten They call it Intelligence i. v. 51 The C.I.A...was caught flatfooted by the military coup in Baghdad.
Hence ˌflat-ˈfootedly adv., ˌflat-ˈfootedness.
1886J. A. Logan Gt. Conspiracy 660 The old Rebel leaders..came out flat-footedly again with the ‘demand that all Custom-house taxation shall be only for revenue’. 1890Daily News 13 Sept. 3/1 The human foot is libelled by these dreadful coverings, in which many a good player flat-footedly dashes about. 1949‘N. R. Nash’ Young & Fair ii. i. 50, I couldn't come out flatfootedly against the Vidge? 1963Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Jan. 40/4 A flat-footedly dramatic definition of time and place. 1882Standard 19 Sept. 5/1 Flat-footedness is due to..improperly-made shoes. |