first foot
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
See FIRST.^ How are your poor feet? An old street-cry said to have originated at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. Tramping about the galleries broke down all but trained athletes.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “first foot” mean?
See FIRST.^ How are your poor feet? An old street-cry said to have originated at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. Tramping about the galleries broke down all but trained athletes.
Is “first foot” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.