spade foot
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See also: spadefoot and spade-foot
English
Noun
spade foot (plural spade foots or spade feet)
- Alternative form of spadefoot
- 1973, United States Dept. of the Interior, Final Environmental Statement for the Geothermal Leasing Program:
- There also is the potential to disturb or destroy specific sites used by such species as the western diamond back rattlesnake, spade foot toad, and the desert tortoise.
- (furniture) A block-shaped foot higher than wide and tapering slightly toward the bottom. The spade foot usually terminates a tapering leg, and the top of the foot is wider than the leg.
- 1929 June, Charles A. King, “Constructing a Piano Bench”, in Popular Science, volume 114, number 6, page 79:
- The spade foot leg may be used as an alternate design.
- 2004, Philip D. Zimmerman, Charles Thomas Butler, Catherine E. Hutchins, American Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts from the Watson Collection, →ISBN, page 93:
- Also, the glazing pattern of the bookcase traces simple diamonds rather than more elaborate arches or other curved elements, and the tapered legs end without a spade foot or an additional taper at the cuff.
- 2011, George Grotz, The Furniture Doctor, →ISBN:
- First was his straight tapered leg, sometimes with a spade foot, at other times tipped in brass.
- The foot that is habitually used to put pressure on a spade when digging.
- 1896, Chambers's Journal, page 10:
- Nevertheless, one foot is generally used in preference to the other in such movements as digging (hence sometimes called the spade foot), in hopping, in making a leap, &c.
- 1927, Granville Stanley Hall, Edward Bradford Titchener, Karl M. Dallenbach, The American Journal of Psychology - Volume 38, page 336:
- Rife says as regards the spade foot, "the fact is always overlooked that the foot used in spading is determined entirely by the bimanual dextrality"
- 2012, Daniel Wilson, The Right Hand: Left-Handedness, →ISBN, page 36:
- I believe every boy will hop on his spade foot. at least I do so, and I am not left-handed; and I instinctively do so because I dig with this foot.
Usage notes
When used as a synonym for spadefoot (the amphibian), the plural is "spade foots" or "spade feet". When used to refer to the foot of a piece of furniture or the preferred foot for digging, the plural is "spade feet".