What does "flatfoot" mean?

A condition in which the arch of the foot makes contact with the ground.

What is a synonym for "flatfoot"?

Common synonyms include: beagle, bluecoat, bobby, bowlegs, bull, camelback.

noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
A condition in which the arch of the foot makes contact with the ground. in-plural
2
a foot afflicted with a fallen arch; abnormally flattened and spread out wordnet
3
A person having the above condition.
4
a policeman who patrols a given region wordnet
5
(plural typically flatfoots) A policeman. archaic, colloquial, derogatory

Show 1 more definition

Verb

1
To walk around in the course of work, especially when investigating.
"And even if they didn't know about her they might know this was his old neighborhood and go flatfooting around asking."
2
To dance in the style of Appalachian clogging.
"Casewell, George, and Steve had the crowd flatfooting across the floor in no time."
3
To gulp an entire drink (bottle, glass, can, etc.) without pausing between swallows.
"“Thanks, Kate,” Bill Bingley said, laying down a screw gun and flatfooting the Coke she handed him."
4
To perform an action inefficiently or awkwardly.
5
To wrong-foot.
"In the event they lacked a proper midfield bolt, with Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira huffing around in pursuit of the whizzing green machine. The centre-backs looked flustered, left to deal with three on two as Mexico broke. Löw’s 4-2-3-1 seemed antiquated and creaky, with the old World Cup shark Thomas Müller flat-footed in a wide position."

"And even if they didn't know about her they might know this was his old neighborhood and go flatfooting around asking."

From flat + foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.