FLAT-FOOTED • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Flat-footed

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/flæt-fˈʊtɪd/ Listen

adjective

Flat-footed adj.

Having a flat foot, with little or no arch of the instep; suffering from fallen arches.

Firm-footed; determined. (Slang, U.S.)

Clumsy; amateurish; pedestrian; unimaginative; plodding; as, flatfooted prose.

Without reservation; without evasion or compromise; firm; as, a flat-footed refusal; a flatfooted denial.

Synonyms: downright, forthright, foursquare, head-on, straightforward.

With feet flat on the ground; not tiptoe.

Unprepared and unable to react quickly; as, the new product caught their competitors flat-footed.

Synonyms: unready. To catch (one) flatfooted to catch (a person) unprepared; to catch (a person) by surprise.

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Etymology of 'Flat-footed'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Flat-footed" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the ruck; if the wind were off the land, he knew which ship would be suited by having the breeze on the beam. Long before he ever saw the outside of the bar he had heard of every point on the coast. The possibility of becoming anything but a sailor never entered his head. He tried to copy the flat-footed rolling walk of the seamen, and he longed for the time when he might wear a braided cap and smoke a pipe. While yet little more than a child he went on his trial voyage, and had his first experience of sea-sickness. Then he was bound apprentice for five years, his wages beginning ...

— The Romance of the Coast • James Runciman

... way down the winding staircase from the upper deck, dropped flat-footed on the asphalt pavement, turned his collar up, leaned into the gust of wind from the South, and swung into the ...

— When Winter Comes to Main Street • Grant Martin Overton

... you were fighting," Matilda sagely remarked later when her brother explained matters to her, "it was his dead father, and Olive Treadwell. You just better write to the boy, I guess, and get him to finish out his visit and reconsider. I tell you flat-footed, Levi, there ain't much give to you when you've worked yourself up, and I must say I like the lad all the better for the way he stood up for his kin. They are his kin, and good or bad, that Treadwell woman has won his affection ...

— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock

... which admitted employes to the big, bright, inner office. But he did not use it. Instead he turned suddenly and walked down the hall to the double door which led into the reception room. He threw out his legs stiffly and came down rather flat-footed, the way George Cohan does when he's pleased with himself ...

— Personality Plus - Some Experiences of Emma McChesney and Her Son, Jock • Edna Ferber