flat-footed

From flat +‎ footed.

flat-footed

1. Having feet which are flat.

   Bears are flat-footed animals.

2. (of humans) Having the specific physical condition of flat feet.
   • 1973, Jaroslav Hašek, translated by Cecil Parrott, The Good Soldier Švejk, London: Heinemann, Part II, Chapter 4, p. 385:

     the 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.

3. (figurative, dated) Holding firmly and maintaining a decision; standing one's ground.
   • 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.

   • 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?

4. (figurative) Blunt and unsubtle; lacking finesse.
   • 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.

   • 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.

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

1. (informal) Unprepared to act.

   They caught us flat-footed.

flat-footed

1. simple past and past participle of flat-foot