Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A condition in which the arch of the foot is abnormally flattened down so that the entire sole makes contact with the ground.
- noun Informal A person with flat feet.
- noun Slang A police officer.
- intransitive verb To walk in a flat-footed manner.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In pathology, a condition in which the arch of the foot is broken down, the sole touching the ground throughout its entire area.
- noun A condition in heavy draft-horses (usually of the fore feet), in which the heel is low, the ground-surface broad, the sole flat or slightly convex, and the wall more acutely slanted than is normal.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- (Med.) A foot in which the arch of the instep is flattened so that the entire sole of the foot rests upon the ground; also, the deformity, usually congential, exhibited by such a foot; splayfoot.
- noun slang a police officer, especially a foot patrolman.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A condition in which the
arch of thefoot makes contact with the ground - noun A person having the above condition
- noun colloquial, archaic, pejorative, law enforcement (plural typically
flatfoots ) Apoliceman
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a policeman who patrols a given region
- noun a foot afflicted with a fallen arch; abnormally flattened and spread out
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It is suited more for seated audiences than the foot-stomping dance I saw in Fries, which is known as flatfoot.
NYT > Home Page By SARAH WILDMAN 2011
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"flatfoot" cop who walked his beat instead of driving a squad car.
HeraldNet.com Local, Sports, Business and Entertainment News 2010
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It was Palin who first attacked the media at the Republican National Convention and caught the national media off guard and flatfoot.
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He gave the flatfoot his best smile and said, Is good.
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Of course the flatfoot that made the arrest claims Gates yelled at him.
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After nine years on the job, he was still a flatfoot.
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"Lowlife peeper, disgraced flatfoot, unscrupulous snoop who --"
Kahen no Ame H-M Brown 2010
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Appalachian kids do old-time flatfoot dancing in Rockette-like precision teams; New Orleans street bands, once nearly extinct, mix spirituals and Thelonious Monk tunes.
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Though informed and pensive, Robinson's prose can be flatfoot.
Gregg Easterbrook: Washington Deluge Foretold by Global Warming Book? 2008
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First in PK, then turning up in a blink-and-miss-it silent cameo in WARGAMES, finally as a distracted flatfoot in the Season One wrapup of THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
Don't even think it Arbogast 2008
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