footman
/ˈfʊtmən
/noun (plural footmen)
1A liveried servant whose duties include admitting visitors and waiting at table.An army of servants - maids, footmen, cooks and gardeners - made the luxurious lifestyle of the family possible....
- It is a sweeping assessment of the backroom boys - and they are usually male - the valets, the footmen, the butlers who make up the backbone of the royal retinue, but it is one that many with experience of the system recognise.
- Alas, visions of liveried footmen and Royal Doulton soon vanished as we pulled into the driveway of Clapped Out Estates, and the effusive greetings of a red-nosed investment banker dressed in plus fours and carpet slippers.
2 historical A soldier in the infantry.When you signed up, you were asked where you wanted to be, cavalry, archery, footmen, swordsmen, smiths....
- There are only a few units: peasants, footmen, knights, archers and catapults.
- A great enthusiasm filled the air as the armies spread out, loosening ranks, cavalry and footmen finding their way across the road and into the fields and woods.
3 archaic A trivet to hang on the bars of a grate.
4A slender moth that is typically of a subdued colour, the caterpillar feeding almost exclusively on lichens.
- Several genera in the family Arctiidae: many species, including the common European Eilema lurideola.
