> as lemmas

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 422/2 Is this woman that lay a chylde bedde a foote agayne?

1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1906) 275 I hear by the hounds the hare is afoot.

1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. ii. 29 Were our wittie Empresse well a foote . View more context for this quotation

1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 i. iii. 272 Before the game is afoote thou still letst slip. View more context for this quotation

1659 Col. Birch in T. Burton Diary (1828) IV. 384 The Committee of the Army is kept a-foot still, at salaries. Receivers-general and auditors are kept a-foot at the same height.

1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle II. lxi. 187 It was now broad day, and all the servants of the inn were afoot.

1807 W. S. Rose Red King in tr. P.-J.-B. Le Grand d'Aussy Partenopex de Blois 190 He saw the branching quarry run, Unscaith'd, o'er bent and low; And ‘ho !’ he cried, ‘the game's afoot!’

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth iv, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. II. 123 A party of mummers who were a-foot for pleasure.

1883 R. L. Stevenson Treasure Island ii. vii. 58 The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, Redruth and I were afoot again, and on the road.

1891 W. Morris News from Nowhere xxiii. 172 Nobody was afoot in the house as then, however, so I went out a-doors.

1904 A. Conan Doyle Return Sherlock Holmes (1905) 319 Come, Watson, come!.. The game is afoot.

1958 D. S. Daniell Hunt Royal (1962) i. 12 Look, something's afoot across the river.

1990 Vancouver Sun 30 June B7 As every gardener knows, slugs are afoot after dark when temperatures fall and the relative humidity increases.

2008 ‘J. Higgins’ Rough Justice vii. 133 ‘The game's afoot,’ Miller said. ‘We can only pray.’