| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈunderfoot, a.
[Attrib. use of underfoot adv.]
1. Lying under the foot or feet. Also spec. (see quots. 1824, 1844), and applied to the state of the going in Horse-racing.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden K 4, The strange vntraffiqu't phrases,..as of incendarie for fire,..an vnder foote abiect for a shooe or a boote. 1824Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 454 Underfit peats, peat turf, digged beneath the foot not in the common way of cutting them of a breest. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 318 In the under-foot wheel, the horses draw by means of trace-chains and swing-tree. 1976Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 9 Dec., Underfoot conditions at Chelmsford made it difficult for everyone. 1979Oxford Times (City ed.) 5 Jan. 6 They [sc. postmen] begin their round in darkness before underfoot conditions have a chance to improve.
2. Inferior, abject, low, downtrodden.
1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. B 1 b, Euerie vnder-foot souldior had a distenanted tun, as Diogenes had his tub to sleepe in. 1641Milton Reform. ii. 90 The most dejected, most underfoot and downe-trodden Vassals of Perdition. 1645― Tetrach. 17 What a stupidnes then is it, that..wee should deject our selvs to such a sluggish and underfoot Philosophy. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. iii, My School⁓master, a downbent, brokenhearted, underfoot martyr.
▪ II. underˈfoot, v.
[under-1 4 a.]
trans. To provide with (new) footings or bases.
1870Baines' Hist. Lancs. II. 27 In 1815 some of the pillars of the N. aisle having given way,..they were all skilfully underfooted and restored.
▪ III. ˈunderfoot, n. rare.
[f. the adv.]
The surface of the ground at the foot of a tree.
1910W. De Morgan Affair of Dishonour iv. 50 This morning was no time for breakfast under the cedar trees. For all the underfoot, where grass grew, was no better than a sponge. 1959E. Collier Three against Wilderness xxiv. 248 No flame could lick far into the forests so long as their underfoot was moist. |