hand and foot
7
6.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
de pies y manos
- She waited on you hand and foot.
- waited on hand and foot
Examples
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Putting in for two weeks off to wait on you, hand and foot.
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Robots waiting on you hand and foot.
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Nine months later, she was waiting on me hand and foot.
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Women who exist only to wait on you hand and foot.
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If ever they were ill, she used to wait on them hand and foot.
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You can't spend your life running after a woman, waiting on her hand and foot when there's important work to be done.
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Her softness came from being spoiled and waited upon hand and foot.
Fiction book (2002) -
And it was true, we sat and she waited on us—"hand and foot," as she liked to say.
Fiction book (1998) -
You don't think she'll be waited on hand and foot and eat like a true nouveau riche or captain of industry?
Fiction book (1995) -
My mother was devoted to my father and waited on him hand and foot.
Antonyms
How Attentive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'hand' and 'foot' are literal body parts joined by 'and', so a learner could plausibly infer a general sense of completeness or 'every part' from the combination. However, the conventionalized use 'serve someone hand and foot' meaning 'attend to someone completely/devotedly' is a somewhat metaphorical, idiomatic extension that is not fully predictable without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom hand and foot may come from the picture of someone cared for with both hands and feet, as if helpers do every job for them. That's why it means 'in every possible way' and 'completely'.