flatfoot

From flat +‎ foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.

flatfoot (plural flatfoots or flatfeet)

1. (medicine, chiefly in the plural) A condition in which the arch of the foot makes contact with the ground.
2. A person having the above condition.
3. (colloquial, archaic, derogatory, law enforcement) (plural typically flatfoots) A policeman.
4. (US, informal, military, slang) A sailor.

• (police officer): see Thesaurus:police officer

• flatfooted

flatfoot (third-person singular simple present flatfoots, present participle flatfooting, simple past and past participle flatfooted)

1. To walk around in the course of work, especially when investigating.
   • 1936, John Thomas McIntyre, Steps going down, page 19:

     And even if they didn't know about her they might know this was his old neighborhood and go flatfooting around asking.

   • 1956, Lee Mortimer, Around the World Confidential, page 38:

     Meanwhile, a bobby placidly flatfooting his beat a few feet away recognized Marlene under the street lamp and naturally assumed the girls had too, and were merely trying to get her autograph.

   • 2017 -, Adam Baron, SuperJack: A totally gripping thriller with a twist you won’t see coming, →ISBN:

     I'd spent a very long day flatfooting it round housing estates near Old Street, looking for a twelve-year-old boy who I'd never managed to find though the police eventually had, two weeks later.

2. To dance in the style of Appalachian clogging.
   • 2014, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Appalachian Serenade (Appalachian Blessings): A Novella, →ISBN:

     Casewell, George, and Steve had the crowd flatfooting across the floor in no time.

3. To gulp an entire drink (bottle, glass, can, etc.) without pausing between swallows.
   • 2012, Dana Stabenow -, A Grave Denied, →ISBN:

     “Thanks, Kate,” Bill Bingley said, laying down a screw gun and flatfooting the Coke she handed him.

4. To perform an action inefficiently or awkwardly.
5. To wrong-foot.
   • 2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 August 2019:

     In the event they lacked a proper midfield bolt, with Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira huffing around in pursuit of the whizzing green machine. The centre-backs looked flustered, left to deal with three on two as Mexico broke. Löw’s 4-2-3-1 seemed antiquated and creaky, with the old World Cup shark Thomas Müller flat-footed in a wide position.