plough footplow footn.
/ˈplaʊ fʊt/, U.S. /ˈplaʊ ˌfʊt/ Now rare.
An adjustable piece of wood, iron, etc., fastened to the front of the beam of a wheelless plough and used to regulate the depth of the ploughing (see quot. ?1523).
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > ploughing equipment > [noun] > plough > foot-plough > part of
plough foota1325
foot rut1846
a1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesworth (Trin. Cambr.) f. 131 Plou fot [a1425 All Souls fote of the plogh; Fr. le penoun].
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. iiv The plough fote is a lytell pese of wode wt a croked ende set before in a mortes in the plough beam, sette fast with wedges to driue vp and downe & it is a stay, to order of what depnesse the plough shall go.
1613 G. Markham Eng. Husbandman: 1st Pt. iii. B iv b Plough foote,..the vse of it is to giue the Plough earth, or put it from the earth, as you please.
a1723 W. Baxter Reliq. Baxter 406 Tho' our Translation..makes Samgar to have slain six hundred Men with an Ox-goad: The LXX say it was ἐν τῷ ἀροτρόποδι, which..is Dentale, or the Plow-foot.
1911 J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 83 His plough-foot high to give it earth.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.a1325