1. The lower extremity of the vertebrate leg that is in direct contact with the ground in standing or walking.

2. A structure used for locomotion or attachment in an invertebrate animal, such as the muscular organ extending from the ventral side of a mollusk.

3. Something suggestive of a foot in position or function, especially: a. The lowest part; the bottom: the foot of a mountain; the foot of a page. b. The end opposite the head, top, or front: the foot of a bed; the foot of a parade. c. The termination of the leg of a piece of furniture, especially when shaped or modeled. d. The part of a sewing machine that holds down and guides the cloth. e. Nautical. The lower edge of a sail. f. Botany. The base of the sporophyte in mosses and liverworts.

4. The inferior part or rank: at the foot of the class.

5. The part of a stocking or high-topped boot that encloses the foot.

6. a. A manner of moving; a step: walks with a light foot. b. Speed or momentum, as in a race: "the only other Democrats who've demonstrated any foot till now" (Michael Kramer).

7. (used with a pl. verb) Foot soldiers; infantry: A regiment of foot are descending the hill.

8. A unit of poetic meter consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables in any of various set combinations. For example, an iambic foot has an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable.

9. Abbr. ft., ft A unit of length in the U.S. Customary and British Imperial systems equal to 12 inches (0.3048 meter).

10. foots Sediment that forms during the refining of oil and other liquids; dregs.

1. To go on foot; walk. Often used with it: When their car broke down, they had to foot it the rest of the way.

2. To dance. Often used with it: "We foot it all the night/weaving olden dances" (William Butler Yeats).

3. Nautical. To make headway; sail.

1. To go by foot over, on, or through; tread.

2. To execute the steps of (a dance).

3. To add up (a column of numbers) and write the sum at the bottom; total: footed up the bill.

4. To pay; defray: footed the expense of their children's education.

5. To provide (a stocking, for example) with a foot.

1. An initial point of or opportunity for entry.

2. A first step in working toward a goal.

1. Standing up: The crowd was on its feet for the last ten seconds.

2. Fully recovered, as after an illness or convalescence: The patient is on her feet again.

3. In a sound or stable operating condition: put the business back on its feet after years of mismanagement.

4. In an impromptu situation; extemporaneously: "Politicians provide easy targets for grammatical nitpickers because they have to think on their feet" (Springfield MA Morning Union).