paddlefoot
nounEtymology From paddle + foot.
1
Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aviation, Business, Engineering, Government, Military, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Politics, War Slang A member of the groundcrew.
- The day after Tommy quit, a paddlefoot soldier on the base made a disparaging remark about Tommy to Sorrow Sorrel, the tail gunner, and Sorrow beat the living hell out of the paddlefoot.1944, Oram C. Hutton, Andrew A. Rooney, Air Gunner, page 116:
- He was a paddlefoot undeniably, and it seemed that I might have spared myself any worry about a hero's death. Still, I could never quite get rid of the lurking notion that he was marked for sudden and outlandish extinction.1968, MacKinlay Kantor, The Day I Met a Lion, page 34: