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Glite Dictionary
🔥 A shoe prank 🏃 To hurry 🏃 Quickly, directly
hotfoot

hotfoot

2 9.9
A joke of putting a lit match under another person's shoe
  • noun
  • /ˈhɑtˌfʊt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : broma del fósforo
  • They burst into laughter after witnessing someone receive a hotfoot in the comedy show.

Examples

  • My great-grandfather Lucius... ...was the first man to give the governor of North Carolina the hotfoot.

    My Favorite Wife (1940)

  • Good of you not to give me a hotfoot while you had the chance.

    Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)

  • Arranging a hotfoot for your friends.

    Night of the Comet (1984)

  • The prank made everyone laugh when they saw him get a hotfoot during the party.

  • He pulled a classic hotfoot on his unsuspecting friend at the campfire.

Surface Forms

hotfoot singular
hotfoots plural

Morphology

hotfoot = hot + foot (semi-transparent) = hot + foot

Formed from 'hot' + 'foot' and the literal image is clear, but the specific prank sense is a specialized idiom not obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Hotfoot is a prank with a very literal name: it comes from the words hot and foot, because someone puts a lit match under the shoe so the foot feels 'hot' and the person jumps. That's why a hotfoot is a practical joke that makes someone move suddenly.