footing
noun
- place to stand
- idiomatic: pay for
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈfʊtɪŋ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English fotyng; equivalent to foot + -ing.
- A ground for the foot; place for the foot to rest on; firm foundation to stand on.
“In ascents, every step gained is a footing and help to the next.”
- A standing; position; established place; foothold.
“As soon, however, as he had obtained a footing at court, the charms of his manner […] made him a favorite.”
“While the California economy maintains its powerhouse status[…] the state’s most-powerful sectors[…]have struggled to keep their footing, pummeled by high interest rates, investor skittishness, labor strife and other turmoil.”
- A relative condition; state.
“[L]ived on a footing of equality with nobles.”
- A tread; step; especially, a measured tread.
“Hark, I hear the footing of a man.”
- A footprint or footprints; tracks, someone's trail.
“The Monster swift as word, that from her went, Went forth in hast, and did her footing trace[…].”
“A man must doe as some wilde beasts, which at the entrance of their caves, will have no manner of footing seene.”
- Stability or balance when standing on one's feet.
“He lost his footing and fell down.”
“It was difficult to keep my footing on the ship during the storm.”
- The act of adding up a column of figures; the amount or sum total of such a column.
“The auditing of the accounts, when the defendant was present, was nothing more than the examinings of the footings of the bookkeeper.”
- The act of putting a foot to anything; also, that which is added as a foot
“the footing of a stocking”
- Foundation or basis for further advancement or development.
“The subsidy gives the organization a firm footing.”
- A narrow cotton lace, without figures.
- The finer refuse part of whale blubber, not wholly deprived of oil.
- The thickened or sloping portion of a wall, or of an embankment at its foot; foundation.
- A double-check of the numbers vertically.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English fotyng; equivalent to foot + -ing.
- present participle and gerund of foot