flat-footed

See also: flatfooted

English

Etymology

From flat (adjective) +‎ footed (adjective).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌflætˈfʊtɪd/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈflætˌfʊtəd/, /ˌflætˈfʊtəd/,
Rhymes: (one pronunciation) -ʊtɪd
Hyphenation: flat-foot‧ed

Adjective

flat-footed (comparative more flat-footed, superlative most flat-footed)

Of an animal: having feet which are naturally flat; (specifically) of a horse: having hoofs with soles close to the ground.
Bears are flat-footed animals.
Of a person: having the physical condition of flat feet (“a condition where the soles of the feet are in full contact with the ground, either because the arches have collapsed or because they never developed”).
- 1973, Jaroslav Hašek, chapter 4, in Cecil Parrott, transl., The Good Soldier Švejk, London: Heinemann, part II, page 385:
  he volunteer from the 9th company was shot because he wouldn't advance and made the excuse that he had swollen legs and was flat-footed.
- 2011, Peg Tittle, Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason, →ISBN:
  Most small children are flatfooted.
(by extension) Of a thing (especially (rail transport) a rail): having a flat base; flat-bottomed.
(figurative)
1. Blunt and unsubtle; lacking finesse; clumsy.
  Synonym: maladroit
  - 1884 December 10, Mark Twain , chapter XXVII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) , London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC, page 276:
    The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out flat-footed and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the children that way.
  - 2006, William Terdoslavich, The Jack Ryan Agenda, →ISBN:
    Two Saudi battalions and a Qatari armored battalion were tasked with retaking the town, which they did in a slow and flat-footed fashion, supported by ample U.S. artillery and air power.
  - 2010, Scott Aikin, Epistemology and the Regress Problem, →ISBN:
    This flatfooted sketch of how experience provides us with reasons has two nodes.
  - 2010, Chris Lewit, Tennis Technique Bible, volume 1, →ISBN, page 20:
    I have many top ranked sectional and national level kids come to my program and I cannot even believe how flatfooted they are—not because they lack the talent—simply because no coach ever demanded the extra footwork effort from them.
  - 2011, Emily W. Leider, Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood, →ISBN:
    It's contrived and flatfooted, and neither Loy nor Powell enjoyed making it, despite its bang-up finale: a free-for-all wedding featuring two brides (Margit and Irene), two grooms, a confused preacher, quite a few drunks from the bar next door, and a maximum of conmmotion—all crammed into Charlie's tiny trailer in a Capra-esque crowd scene.
  - 2012, Jesse J. Prinz, The Conscious Brain: How Attention Engenders Experience, →ISBN:
    One flat-footed answer is that they are both mine.
  - 2017 March 21, Michiko Kakutani, “‘The Death of Expertise’ Explores How Ignorance Became a Virtue”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
    But it’s more of a flat-footed compendium than an original work, pulling together examples from recent news stories while iterating arguments explored in more depth in books like Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason,”
  - 2019 April 11, Marcel Theroux, “Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan review – intelligent mischief”, in The Guardian‎:
    It’s the opposite technique to that of McEwan’s narrator, who explicitly sets out his world, overexplains the historical context and never turns down a chance to offer an essayistic digression. To my taste, this is a flat-footed way of doing sci-fi.
2. (US) Unprepared, unready.
3. (originally US, informal, dated) Direct, downright, straightforward; also, holding firmly to and maintaining a decision; standing one's ground.
  - 1834, “Buck Horn Tavern, a Scene in the West”, in The knickerbocker, volume 3, pages 31–37:
    I haint got no shoes, tis true, but I stand flat-footed and damn the man who can move me one inch—do you hear that Wolfe?
  - 1892, Frank Millet, quoted in 2003, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, →ISBN, page 177.
    I write in this way to urge you to be explicit and flat-footed in your wishes.