underfoot
2
4.2
- adverb
- /ˌʌndərˈfʊt/
- They circle the room in a clockwise direction, pushed on by each other in perpetual motion, afraid that if they stop they'll be sucked under the maelstrom and trampled underfoot.
Examples
-
The palms lowered their fan-like leaves, and "marguia" lizards, brown and red and the size of one's hand, scurried underfoot and crept up walls when we walked in the garden at Claude's villa.
Fiction book (2001) -
While I prepared dinner, my cat lounged underfoot, causing me to watch my step carefully.
-
If I am heading for the door, they nearly trip me underfoot, trying to beat me there.
Blog text (24) -
Well, all right, long as she stays from up underfoot.
-
Boxes, scattered underfoot, are filling up with his life's possessions.
Fiction book (1990) -
The throng of merrymaking children who had joined in her processional swarmed around her, offering to guide her, to hold the donkey's bridle, and to perform any of a dozen needless errands to justify their continued presence underfoot.
Fiction book (2000) -
The children were playing together underfoot, making it hard for the adults to walk without tripping.
-
She found her dog constantly underfoot, following her around the house and getting in the way.
Antonyms
How Obstructive
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Underfoot also keeps that image of something under 'beneath' your foot 'foot', and so it is used for people or objects that are 'in the way' or make it hard to move around.