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FOOTING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A place providing support for the foot in standing or climbing
Synonyms:
foothold; footing
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("footing" is a kind of...):
support (any device that bears the weight of another thing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "footing"):
toehold (a small foothold used in climbing)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A relation that provides the foundation for something
Example:
he worked on an interim basis
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("footing" is a kind of...):
foundation (the basis on which something is grounded)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "footing"):
common ground (a basis agreed to by all parties for reaching a mutual understanding)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Status with respect to the relations between people or groups
Example:
on a friendly footing
Synonyms:
footing; terms
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("footing" is a kind of...):
position; status (the relative position or standing of things or especially persons in a society)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb foot
Context examples:
You see on what a footing we are.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
There will be no winner in this cosmic clash, but at least the Milky Way will be on an equal footing with its cosmic rival.
(No Winner in Milky Way-Andromeda Clash, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Not only the anchor of hope, but the footing of fortitude was gone—at least for a moment; but the last I soon endeavoured to regain.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
People of the name of Tupman, very lately settled there, and encumbered with many low connexions, but giving themselves immense airs, and expecting to be on a footing with the old established families.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Then the smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was drowned.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Could they be perpetrated without being known, in a country like this, where social and literary intercourse is on such a footing, where every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies, and where roads and newspapers lay everything open?
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
He drove so directly to the core of the matter, divesting a question always of all superfluous details, and with such an air of finality, that I seemed to find myself struggling in deep water, with no footing under me.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
He was never known to lose his footing.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
We have been on a friendly footing for some years—I may say on a very friendly footing.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Family circumstances are a sufficient reason for our only meeting on that footing, and it is quite unnecessary that either of us should make the other the subject of remark.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
