adv. [ Pref. a- + foot. ] 1. On foot. [ 1913 Webster ]

We 'll walk afoot a while. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: In motion; in action; astir; in progress. [ 1913 Webster ]

The matter being afoot. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The first day of April, a day on which sportive impositions are practiced. [ 1913 Webster ]

The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day. Poor Robin's Almanack (1760). [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Elec.) A unit, employed in calculating fall of pressure in distributing mains, equivalent to a current of one ampère flowing through one foot of conductor. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. & adv. With the feet bare; without shoes or stockings. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having the feet bare. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A species of hellebore (Helleborus fœtidus), with digitate leaves. It has an offensive smell and acrid taste, and is a powerful emetic, cathartic, and anthelmintic. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Befooled p. pr. & vb. n. Befooling. ] [ OE. befolen; pref. be- + fol fool. ] 1. To fool; to delude or lead into error; to infatuate; to deceive. [ 1913 Webster ]

This story . . . contrived to befool credulous men. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cause to behave like a fool; to make foolish. “Some befooling drug.” G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A papilionaceous plant, the Ornithopus, having a curved, cylindrical pod tipped with a short, clawlike point. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bird's-foot trefoil. (Bot.) (a) A genus of plants (Lotus) with clawlike pods. Lotus corniculatas, with yellow flowers, is very common in Great Britain. (b) the related plant, Trigonella ornithopodioides, is also European. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to the Blackfeet; as, a Blackfoot Indian. -- n. A Blackfoot Indian. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a weasellike mammal (Mustela nigripes) inhabiting the western North American prairie, having dark feet, a dark-tipped tail, and a dark face on a yellowish-brown coat. It is an endangered species. [ PJC ]

v. t. To treat with buffoonery. Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bouffon (cf. It. buffone, buffo, buffa, puff of wind, vanity, nonsense, trick), fr. bouffer to puff out, because the buffoons puffed out their cheeks for the amusement of the spectators. See Buffet a blow. ] A man who makes a practice of amusing others by low tricks, antic gestures, etc.; a droll; a mimic; a harlequin; a clown; a merry-andrew. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Characteristic of, or like, a buffoon. “Buffoon stories.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

To divert the audience with buffoon postures and antic dances. Melmoth. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To act the part of a buffoon. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Buffooneries [ F. bouffonnerie. ] The arts and practices of a buffoon, as low jests, ridiculous pranks, vulgar tricks and postures. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nor that it will ever constitute a wit to conclude a tart piece of buffoonery with a “What makes you blush?” Spectator. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a buffoon; consisting in low jests or gestures. Blair. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The practices of a buffoon; buffoonery. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Low; vulgar. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Apish tricks and buffoonly discourse. Goodman. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Photom.) The illumination produced by a British standard candle at a distance of one foot; -- used as a unit of illumination. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Bot.) A plant (Nepeta Glechoma) of the same genus with catnip; ground ivy. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a cloven foot. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ , a. Having the foot or hoof divided into two parts, as the ox. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Club + foot. ] (Med.) A short, variously distorted foot; also, the deformity, usually congenital, which such a foot exhibits; talipes. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a clubfoot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A perennial herb (Tussilago Farfara), whose leaves and rootstock are sometimes employed in medicine. [ 1913 Webster ]

Butterbur coltsfoot (Bot.), a European plant (Petasites vulgaris). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The phalarope; -- so called because its toes are like the coot's. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Bot.) The genus Ranunculus, of many species; some are common weeds, others are flowering plants of considerable beauty. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Naut.) A number of small cords rove through a long block, or euphroe, to suspend an awning by. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mil.) A caltrop. [ Written also crow's-foot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Well Boring) A tool with a side claw for recovering broken rods, etc. Raymond. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Crow's-feet [ 1913 Webster ]

1. pl. The wrinkles that appear, as the effect of age or dissipation, under and around the outer corners of the eyes. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mil.) A caltrop. [ Written also crowfoot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Arch.) Same as Bird's-mouth. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) (a) A small annual species of Geranium, native in England; -- so called from the shape of the leaf. (b) The columbine. [ Prov. Eng. ] Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The scent of the game, as far as it can be traced. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The May apple (Podophyllum peltatum). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) (a) A species of gecko having the toes expanded into large lobes for adhesion. The Egyptian fanfoot (Phyodactylus gecko) is believed, by the natives, to have venomous toes. (b) Any moth of the genus Polypogon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A South American bird (Heliornis fulica) allied to the grebes. The name is also applied to several related species of the genus Podica. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Zool.) (a) Having palmate feet. (b) Having lobate toes, as the coot and grebe. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a police officer, especially a foot patrolman. [ slang ] [ PJC ]

(Med.) A foot in which the arch of the instep is flattened so that the entire sole of the foot rests upon the ground; also, the deformity, usually congential, exhibited by such a foot; splayfoot. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having a flat foot, with little or no arch of the instep; suffering from fallen arches. [ wns=3 ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Firm-footed; determined. [ Slang, U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. clumsy; amateurish; pedestrian; unimaginative; plodding; as, flatfooted prose. [ PJC ]

4. Without reservation; without evasion or compromise; firm; as, a flat-footed refusal; a flatfooted denial. [ wns=4 ]
Syn. -- downright, forthright, foursquare, head-on, straightforward. [ PJC ]

5. With feet flat on the ground; not tiptoe. [ wns=1 ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

6. Unprepared and unable to react quickly; as, the new product caught their competitors flat-footed. [ wns=2 ]
Syn. -- unready. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

To catch (one) flatfooted to catch (a person) unprepared; to catch (a person) by surprise. [ PJC ]

a. Swift of foot. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) See Coltsfoot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. fode, AS. fōda; akin to Icel. fæða, fæði, Sw. föda, Dan. & LG. föde, OHG. fatunga, Gr. patei^sthai to eat, and perh. to Skr. pā to protect, L. pascere to feed, pasture, pabulum food, E. pasture. √75. Cf. Feed, Fodder food, Foster to cherish. ] 1. What is fed upon; that which goes to support life by being received within, and assimilated by, the organism of an animal or a plant; nutriment; aliment; especially, what is eaten by animals for nourishment. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In a physiological sense, true aliment is to be distinguished as that portion of the food which is capable of being digested and absorbed into the blood, thus furnishing nourishment, in distinction from the indigestible matter which passes out through the alimentary canal as fæces. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Foods are divided into two main groups: nitrogenous, or proteid, foods, i.e., those which contain nitrogen, and nonnitrogenous, i.e., those which do not contain nitrogen. The latter group embraces the fats and carbohydrates, which collectively are sometimes termed heat producers or respiratory foods, since by oxidation in the body they especially subserve the production of heat. The proteids, on the other hand, are known as plastic foods or tissue formers, since no tissue can be formed without them. These latter terms, however, are misleading, since proteid foods may also give rise to heat both directly and indirectly, and the fats and carbohydrates are useful in other ways than in producing heat. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything that instructs the intellect, excites the feelings, or molds habits of character; that which nourishes. [ 1913 Webster ]

This may prove food to my displeasure. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

In this moment there is life and food
For future years. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Food is often used adjectively or in self-explaining compounds, as in food fish or food-fish, food supply. [ 1913 Webster ]

Food vacuole (Zool.), one of the spaces in the interior of a protozoan in which food is contained, during digestion. --
Food yolk. (Biol.) See under Yolk.

Syn. -- Aliment; sustenance; nutriment; feed; fare; victuals; provisions; meat. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To supply with food. [ Obs. ] Baret. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Full of food; supplying food; fruitful; fertile. “The foodful earth.” Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bent by its foodful burden [ the corn ]. Glover. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Without food; barren. Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Eatable; fruitful. [ R. ] Chapman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. fouler to tread, crush. Cf. 1st Foil. ] A compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream; -- commonly called gooseberry fool. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. fol, n. & adj., F. fol, fou, foolish, mad; a fool, prob. fr. L. follis a bellows, wind bag, an inflated ball; perh. akin to E. bellows. Cf. Folly, Follicle. ] 1. One destitute of reason, or of the common powers of understanding; an idiot; a natural. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A person deficient in intellect; one who acts absurdly, or pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom; one without judgment; a simpleton; a dolt. [ 1913 Webster ]

Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Franklin. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Script.) One who acts contrary to moral and religious wisdom; a wicked person. [ 1913 Webster ]

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Ps. xiv. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments. [ 1913 Webster ]

Can they think me . . . their fool or jester? Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

April fool,
Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. --
Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bells were usually attached, formerly worn by professional jesters. --
Fool's errand, an unreasonable, silly, profitless adventure or undertaking. --
Fool's gold, iron or copper pyrites, resembling gold in color. --
Fool's paradise, a name applied to a limbo (see under Limbo) popularly believed to be the region of vanity and nonsense. Hence, any foolish pleasure or condition of vain self-satistaction. --
Fool's parsley (Bot.), an annual umbelliferous plant (Aethusa Cynapium) resembling parsley, but nauseous and poisonous. --
To make a fool of, to render ridiculous; to outwit; to shame. [ Colloq. ] --
To play the fool, to act foolishly; to act the buffoon; to act a foolish part. “I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.” 1 Sam. xxvi. 21. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Fooled p. pr. & vb. n. Fooling. ] To play the fool. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To waste time in unproductive activity; to spend time in idle sport or mirth; to trifle; to toy.
Syn. -- fool around. [ PJC ]

Is this a time for fooling? Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To infatuate; to make foolish. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

For, fooled with hope, men favor the deceit. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To use as a fool; to deceive in a shameful or mortifying manner; to impose upon; to cheat by inspiring foolish confidence; as, to fool one out of his money. [ 1913 Webster ]

You are fooled, discarded, and shook off
By him for whom these shames ye underwent. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To fool away, to get rid of foolishly; to spend in trifles, idleness, folly, or without advantage. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl.; sing. Foolah. (Ethnol.) Same as Fulahs. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Fooled around p. pr. & vb. n. Fooling around. ] 1. To waste time in idle pursuits; to fool{ 2 }.
Syn. -- fool{ 2 }. [ PJC ]

2. To flirt or philander. RHUDbr/ [ PJC ]

3. To be sexually promiscuous; to engage in sexual intercourse with more than one partner; especially, to engage in adultery; as, to fool around with another woman. [ PJC ]