underfoot meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

underfoot

adj

UK /ʌndəˈfʊt/ · US /ʌndɚˈfʊt/

Etymology From Middle English underfoote, underfote, equivalent to under- + foot. Cognate with Middle Dutch ondervoet (“underfoot”). Compare also Middle Low German undervôt (“pedestal, base”).

1

Situated under one's foot or feet.

2

In the way; placed so as to obstruct or hinder.

We'd go to the Downbeat Club, on Fifty-second Street, and I'd be so underfoot that Billie couldn't miss me.2006, Whitney Balliett, American Singers: Twenty-Seven Portraits in Song, page 199:
You ask a lot of questions, Morty. Not very charismatic. It makes you kind of an [belch] under [belch] underfoot figure.2013, Rick and Morty: Pilot:

3

Downtrodden; abject.

underfoot

adv

Etymology From Middle English underfoote, underfote, equivalent to under- + foot. Cognate with Middle Dutch ondervoet (“underfoot”). Compare also Middle Low German undervôt (“pedestal, base”).

1

Under one's foot or feet.

The workers were all big, burly, hard-hearted men, tromping through the marsh in their heavy boots without sparing so much as a single thought for the masses of tiny frogs they crushed underfoot.
The green turf was velvet underfoot.1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:

1 more example

With 3,600 h.p. underfoot, acceleration was reasonably brisk, but the flickering wheel-slip indicator light showed the prudence of not putting full power through the traction motors while there were traces of early-morning dampness on the rails.1960 August, R. K. Evans, “Railway Modernisation in Spain”, in Trains Illustrated, page 494:

2

In the way; situated so as to obstruct or hinder.

It would be easier to do a big project like that someday when we don't have a bunch of newcomers underfoot.
If you're not going to help, at least get out from underfoot.1978, Tom Reamy, Blind Voices:

underfoot

noun

Etymology From Middle English underfoote, underfote, equivalent to under- + foot. Cognate with Middle Dutch ondervoet (“underfoot”). Compare also Middle Low German undervôt (“pedestal, base”).

1

A storage compartment that sits below the deck of a boat.

In the early stages of fishing, storage space for wet fish was extremely limited, as three pounds on either side, and most of the staging and underfoots, contained ice, leaving only two empty pounds for stowage.1957, Report on an Experiment Into the Freezing of Fish at Sea, page 30:
All too often saithe are put away with an inadequate amount of ice on them, or stowed in deep shelves or underfoots, where they become badly squashed and spoil more rapidly.1970, Torry Advisory Note - Issues 43-69, page 5:

1 more example

Progress was very slow owing to heavy floes and deep underfoots, which necessitated frequent stoppages of the engines.1999, Ernest Shackleton, South: The Endurance Expedition to Antarctica, →ISBN, page 283:

underfoot

verb

Etymology From Middle English underfoote, underfote, equivalent to under- + foot. Cognate with Middle Dutch ondervoet (“underfoot”). Compare also Middle Low German undervôt (“pedestal, base”).

1

To provide a footing beneath; to shore up or underpin.

A builder was employed to underfoot a tenement, but the work having been improperly executed, damage was caused to adjoining houses.1856, The Scottish Jurist:
The two courses which were open to them were, — on the one hand, to underfoot the building ; and, on the other, to take it down, with the view of its being re-erected on the same site, or elsewhere ; if they should have the means of doing so.1870, Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Teind Court, Etc.:

1 more example

The result was to bring out the fact, which is now established beyond all doubt by the proof, that any attempt to underfoot the steeple would have been an entire mistake.1904, Sir John Rankine, The Scots Revised Reports, page 774:

2

Accounting, Business, Finance To assign a column summary that is less than the sum of all the entries in that column.

Another device is to underfoot the accounts receivable column and the net cash column in the record of cash receipts and to underfoot the debit or overfoot the credit side of one or more accounts in the customer's ledger by equal amounts.1932, Frank Hatch Streightoff, Advanced Accounting, page 140:
Stay away from the client or taxpayer who conceals, pads, overstates or understates, alters, duplicates, overfoots or underfoots, diverts, manipulates, omits, falsifies and flagrantly disregards the IRS regulations.1980, The CPA Journal - Volume 50:

1 more example

In manually balancing the cash receipts journal prior to posting to the ledgers, it is quite possible to underfoot or overfoot columns deliberately in order to manipulate the account records to cover cash shortages.1983, Accounting and information systems: instructor's manual, →ISBN, page 258: