Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A footstep; the tread of the foot.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A setting down of the foot; a footstep; the sound of a footstep.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun countable The
sound made by afootstep . - noun chiefly UK, uncountable
Foot (pedestrian )traffic .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the sound of a step of someone walking
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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a painful and solitary business through "that solitary land of the individual experience, in which no fellow footfall is ever heard", as it says in the first epigraph in The Aunt's
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The registered footfall, which is the number of visitors, for last year was more than 583 million, 60 percent of them women.
Stacie Krajchir: How Ikea Manipulated Me To Go Blue So They Can Be Green 2008
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His footfall was a feathery thing that carried him like a shadow to the door.
Way of the Lawless Max Brand 1918
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Down the gradual slope the scout hastened; his footfall was the only sound that broke the stillness after the answers to his call had ceased.
Old Indian Days 1907
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Her footfall is the lightest, her laugh the merriest in the house.
The American Made 1901
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Her footfall is the lightest, her laugh the merriest in the house.
The Making of an American Riis, Jacob A 1901
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Down the gradual slope the scout hastened; his footfall was the only sound that broke the stillness after the answers to his call had ceased.
Old Indian Days Charles Alexander Eastman 1898
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Her footfall is the lightest, her laugh the merriest in the house.
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The footfall is a light one, but distinct enough for them to tell, that whoever makes it is continuing on towards them, though yet unseen.
Gaspar the Gaucho A Story of the Gran Chaco Mayne Reid 1850
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footfall, which is a means so steady and in small sections wanders through the mind unnoticed, because it beats constantly, sweeping together the loose tacks of sound
Archive 2006-05-01 Miglior acque 2006
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“Our clients are predominantly office workers but we get some footfall from the station, the station staff come down and there are construction workers,” she says.
‘We’ve taken a heavy beating’: is there any hope for the sandwich bar? Hilary Osborne 2021
bilby commented on the word footfall
Last night your lost memory visited my heart
as spring visits the wilderness quietly,
as the breeze echoes the silence of her footfalls
in the desert,
as peace slowly, softly descends on one's sickness.
- Faiz Ahmed Faiz, 'Last Night'.
August 8, 2009
jodi commented on the word footfall
IrE, often used in a business marketing context; foot traffic (AmE) is analogous, but doesn't have the same connotations, nor does pedestrian traffic (AmE) (which sounds more stilted).
April 19, 2011