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A fossil footprint; an ichnite.

The branch of science which treats of fossil footprints.

Motion on foot; progress in walking. [Obs.] The incession or local motion of animals. Sir T. Browne.

A measure of length, the twelfth part of a foot, commonly subdivided into halves, quarters, eights, sixteenths, etc., as among mechanics. It was also formerly divided into twelve parts, called lines, and originally into three parts, called barleycorns, its length supposed to have been determined from three grains of ba…

Act of beginning; commencement; inception. The setting on foot some of those arts, in those parts, would be looked on as the first inchoation of them. Sir M. Hale. It is now in actual progress, from the rudest inchoation to the most elaborate finishing. I. Taylor.

A body of soldiers serving on foot; foot soldiers, in distinction from cavalry.

A suborder of marine gastropod mollusks, in which the gills are between the foot and the mantle.

To introduce by a first act; to make a beginning with; to set afoot; to originate; to commence; to begin or enter upon. How are changes of this sort to be initiated I. Taylor.

asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning. He could no path nor track of foot descry, Nor by inquiry learn, nor guess by aim. Spenser. The men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate. Acts x. 17.

The arched middle portion of the human foot next in front of the ankle joint.

To begin; to commence; to set on foot; as, to institute an inquiry; to institute a suit. And haply institute A course of learning and ingenious studies. Shak.

To strike one foot against the opposite foot or ankle in using the legs; -- sometimes said of a human being, but usually of a horse; as, the horse interferes.

ialect of all cultivated Greeks in the period of Athenian prosperity and glory. -- Ionic foot. (Pros.) See Ionic, n., 1. -- Ionic, or Ionian, mode (Mus.), an ancient mode, supposed to correspond with the modern major scale of C. -- Ionic sect, a sect of philosophers founded by Thales of Miletus, in Ionia. Their dist…

The goddess of the rainbow, and swift-footed messenger of the gods. Shak.

ernate year. They consisted of all kinds of athletic sports, wrestling, boxing, racing on foot and in chariots, and also contests in music and poetry. The prize was a garland of pine leaves.

t after some intransitive verbs, or after a substantive used humorously as a verb; as, to foot it (i. e., to walk). The Lacedemonians, at the Straits of Thermopylæ, when their arms failed them, fought it out with nails and teeth. Dryden. Whether the charmer sinner it, or saint it, If folly grows romantic, I must paint…

spear, to be thrown or cast by thew hand; anciently, a weapon of war used by horsemen and foot soldiers; now used chiefly in hunting the wild boar and other fierce game. Flies the javelin swifter to its mark, Launched by the vigor of a Roman arm Addison.

A footman; a flunky. [Slang, Eng.] Thackeray.

of fruits or meats boiled with sugar to an elastic consistence; as, currant jelly; calf's-foot jelly. Jelly bag, a bag through which the material for jelly is strained. -- Jelly mold, a mold for forming jelly in ornamental shapes. -- Jelly plant (Bot.), Australian name of an edible seaweed (Eucheuma speciosum), from…

ght red berries of about the size of cherries. -- Jerusalem oak (Bot.), an aromatic goosefoot (Chenopodium Botrys), common about houses and along roadsides. -- Jerusalem sage (Bot.), a perennial herb of the Mint family (Phlomis tuberosa). -- Jerusalem thorn (Bot.), a spiny, leguminous tree (Parkinsonia aculeata), wi…