underfoot
/ʌndɚˈfʊt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.66 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
In the way; placed so as to obstruct or hinder.
adj
adv
In the way; situated so as to obstruct or hinder.
Example Sentences
- "We'd go to the Downbeat Club, on Fifty-second Street, and I'd be so underfoot that Billie couldn't miss me."
- "You ask a lot of questions, Morty. Not very charismatic. It makes you kind of an [belch] under [belch] underfoot figure."
- "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."
- "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."
- "It would be easier to do a big project like that someday when we don't have a bunch of newcomers underfoot."
Etymology
From Middle English underfoote, underfote, equivalent to under- + foot. Cognate with Middle Dutch ondervoet (“underfoot”). Compare also Middle Low German undervôt (“pedestal, base”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ʌndɚˈfʊt/
- British English: /ʌndəˈfʊt/