loose-footed

[ loos-foot-id ]

adjective

, Nautical.

1. (of a fore-and-aft sail) not having the foot bent to a boom.

Word History and Origins

Origin of loose-footed¹

First recorded in 1710–20

Example Sentences

Loose-footed here upon the hills, one might pass as free as the wind, indeed, but there was something like the pain of prison isolation in these night silences which bore down upon a man and made him old.

From Project Gutenberg

There were the "loose-footed fellows," who followed the railroad, worked for seasons on the farms, drifted on with the renewal of demand for railroad laborers, and disappeared from the Hill.

From Project Gutenberg

It was steered by immense oars, as sailing vessels were before the days of rudders; other gigantic oars were occasionally used to propel it, like an ancient galley; it carried loose-footed square sails, like the ships of Tarshish; and its crew lived aboard in shacks and other simple kinds of shelter, like the earliest Egyptian cabins ages before the captivity of Israel.

From Project Gutenberg

The mainsail is of course loose-footed, and the tack is seen well triced up.

From Project Gutenberg

When Gideon was on the stage, Stuhk used to enjoy peeping out at the intent, smiling faces of the audience, where men and women and children, hardened theater-goers and folk fresh from the country, sat with moving lips and faces lit with an eager interest and sympathy for the black man strutting in loose-footed vivacity before them.

From Project Gutenberg