dry-foot en · ADV
Pronunciation
- /ˈdɹʌɪfʊt/ (UK)
Etymology
From dry + foot.
Meanings
-
(not-comparable) With dry feet; without getting the feet wet.
Where he speaketh of his passage over the River of Rheine, towards Germanie, he saith, that deeming it unworthy the honour of the Romane people, his army should passe over in shippes, he caused a bridge to be built, that so it might passe over drie-foot.
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 34, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
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(not-comparable, obsolete) By only the scent of the feet (of hunting, tracking etc.).
A hound that runs Counter, and yet draws drifoot well, / One that before the Iudgme[n]t carries poore soules to hel.
c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
Translations (3)
ru не замочи́в но́г (with dry feet) · ru по́суху (with dry feet) · ru по за́паху следо́в (by scent of the feet)