Footing

Full definition of footing

(plural footings)

A ground for the foot; place for the foot to rest on; firm foundation to stand on.In ascent, every step gained is a footing and help to the next. Holder.
A standing; position; established place; basis for operation; permanent settlement; foothold.As soon as he had obtained a footing at court, the charms of his manner . . . made him a favorite. Thomas Babington Macaulay.
A relative condition; state.Lived on a footing of equality with nobles. Thomas Babington Macaulay.
A tread; step; especially, measured tread.Hark, I hear the footing of a man. Shakespeare
(now rare) A footprint or footprints; tracks, someone's trail.

1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vii:The Monster swift as word, that from her went,
Went forth in hast, and did her footing trace ....
1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, I.38:A man must doe as some wilde beasts, which at the entrance of their caves, will have no manner of footing seene.

2011, October 29, Phil McNulty, Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal, Terry lost his footing to allow Van Persie to race clear for Arsenal's fourth after 85 minutes before the Netherlands striker completed a second treble against Chelsea by hammering his third past Petr Cech deep into stoppage time.

The act of adding up a column of figures; the amount or sum total of such a column.

Francis A. Corliss, Supreme Court, County of New York (page 111)The auditing of the accounts, when the defendant was present, was nothing more than the examinings of the footings of the bookkeeper.

The act of putting a foot to anything; also, that which is added as a foot; as, the footing of a stocking.
A narrow cotton lace, without figures.
The finer refuse part of whale blubber, not wholly deprived of oil. Simmonds.
(architecture, engineering) The thickened or sloping portion of a wall, or of an embankment at its foot; foundation.
(accounting) Double checking the numbers vertically.

footing