"backfoot" meaning in All languages combined

See backfoot on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: backfoots [present, singular, third-person], backfooting [participle, present], backfooted [participle, past], backfooted [past]
Etymology: back + foot Etymology templates: {{compound|en|back|foot}} back + foot Head templates: {{en-verb}} backfoot (third-person singular simple present backfoots, present participle backfooting, simple past and past participle backfooted)
  1. (transitive) To put on the defensive; to put off balance. Tags: transitive Synonyms: back-foot Related terms: on the back foot, on the back footing
    Sense id: en-backfoot-en-verb-ckqfRfXH Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for backfoot meaning in All languages combined (1.7kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back",
        "3": "foot"
      },
      "expansion": "back + foot",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "back + foot",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "backfoots",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "backfooting",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "backfooted",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "backfooted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "backfoot (third-person singular simple present backfoots, present participle backfooting, simple past and past participle backfooted)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1996, Kenneth Branagh, “The Film diaries”, in Hamlet, page 188",
          "text": "Hamlet is bitter, evasive, now backfooting them, now attacking, now genial - their job isn't going to be easy.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 February 21, “Japan opposition gears up for showdown on Livedoor”, in Boston Globe",
          "text": "Koizumi's government has been backfooted by the indictment of Horie, the former CEO of Livedoor Co., on charges of violating securities regulations",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put on the defensive; to put off balance."
      ],
      "id": "en-backfoot-en-verb-ckqfRfXH",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To put on the defensive; to put off balance."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "on the back foot"
        },
        {
          "word": "on the back footing"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "back-foot"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "backfoot"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back",
        "3": "foot"
      },
      "expansion": "back + foot",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "back + foot",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "backfoots",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "backfooting",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "backfooted",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "backfooted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "backfoot (third-person singular simple present backfoots, present participle backfooting, simple past and past participle backfooted)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "on the back foot"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the back footing"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1996, Kenneth Branagh, “The Film diaries”, in Hamlet, page 188",
          "text": "Hamlet is bitter, evasive, now backfooting them, now attacking, now genial - their job isn't going to be easy.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 February 21, “Japan opposition gears up for showdown on Livedoor”, in Boston Globe",
          "text": "Koizumi's government has been backfooted by the indictment of Horie, the former CEO of Livedoor Co., on charges of violating securities regulations",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put on the defensive; to put off balance."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To put on the defensive; to put off balance."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "back-foot"
    }
  ],
  "word": "backfoot"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-04 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (e9e0a99 and db5a844). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.