† polt-footn.adj.

Forms: 1500s powlt-foot, 1500s–1600s polt-foote, 1500s–1600s poult-foot, 1500s–1600s poult-foote, 1600s polte-foot, 1600s 1800s polt-foot.

Origin: Apparently formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: polt n., foot n.

Etymology: Apparently < polt n. (although this is apparently first attested later) + foot n.

Obsolete (rare after 17th cent.).

A. n.

A club foot.

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the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > deformities of specific parts > [noun] > of foot > foot

splay-foot1548

stump foota1568

polt-foot1578

club-foot1683

bumble foot1832

reel foot1835

pigeon toe1888

clump-foot1922

rocker foot1934

1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 33^v Venus was content to take the black Smith with his powlt foot.

1589 R. Greene Ciceronis Amor 38 Venus would not beleeue hee had a poult foote.

1604 T. Dekker & T. Middleton Honest Whore v. ii. 205 My eldest sonne had a polt foote, crooked legs.

1659 Lady Alimony ii. v. sig. D3^v Vulcans poult foot or his smutted look.

1840 R. Browning Sordello v. 266 ‘Polt-foot’, sang they, ‘was in a pitfall now’.

B. adj.

Club-footed. Also figurative.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > deformity > deformities of specific parts > [adjective] > of foot

hurleda1500

splay-footed1545

polt-foot?1589

polt-footed1589

club-footed1591

stump-foot1593

flat-footed1601

stump-footed1602

feetless1614

splay-foot1622

splatter-footeda1644

shauchled1737

hurl-footed1752

parrot-toed1764

splaw1767

pigeon-toed1786

bumble-footed1823

in-toed1835

chicken-toed1859

infooted1899

?1589 T. Nashe Almond for Parrat f. 4^v My Bedlam brother Wig. and poltfoote Pag. with the rest of those patches.

1602 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. vii. sig. I^v What's become of..the poult-foote Stinkard, her Husband?

1880 A. C. Swinburne Study of Shakespeare 185 The rough construction and the poltfoot metre, lame sense and limping verse.

Derivatives

† polt-footed adj. Obsolete club-footed.

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