hotfoot

English

Etymology

From Middle English hot-fot, hot fot, equivalent to hot +‎ foot.

Noun

hotfoot (plural hotfoots)

(US) The prank of secretly inserting a match between the sole and upper of a victim's shoe and then lighting it.

Adverb

hotfoot

(Britain) hastily; without delay.

Translations

Hastily

German: schnell (de), unverzüglich (de)

Verb

hotfoot (third-person singular simple present hotfoots, present participle hotfooting, simple past and past participle hotfooted)

(transitive) To run (a distance).
- 2007, R.C. Harvey, Meanwhile...
  He hotfooted the four-and-a-half blocks across town to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and checked out the books Patterson had mentioned—and everything else about China he could quickly think of.
- 2010, Eric Hammel, Coral and Blood: The U.S. Marine Corps’ Pacific Campaign (page 55)
  The Ford was shot up heavily, so Larkin hotfooted the last mile to Ewa. Once there, he took cover beneath a truck as unchallenged Zeros strafed the neatly parked MAG-21 aircraft and the base facilities.

Derived terms

hotfoot it
hotfoot spell

Translations

To run

German: rennen (de)

Anagrams

foothot