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

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

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.

See images of 'Flat-footed'

Etymology of 'Flat-footed'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Flat-footed" Quotes from Famous Books

... 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

Words linked to "Flat-footed" : footed, splayfooted, direct, splayfoot, unready