dry-foot

English

Etymology

From dry +‎ foot.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹʌɪfʊt/

Adverb

dry-foot (not comparable)

1. With dry feet; without getting the feet wet.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 34, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Where he speaketh of his passage over the River of Rheine, towards Germanie, he saith, that deeming it unworthy the honour of the Romane people, his army should passe over in shippes, he caused a bridge to be built, that so it might passe over drie-foot.

2. (obsolete) By only the scent of the feet (of hunting, tracking etc.).
   • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     A hound that runs Counter, and yet draws drifoot well, / One that before the Iudgme[n]t carries poore soules to hel.

Translations

with dry feet

• Russian: не замочи́в но́г (ne zamočív nóg), по́суху (ru) (pósuxu)

by scent of the feet

• Russian: по за́паху следо́в (po zápaxu sledóv)