afoot
/əˈfʊt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern Ireland/əˈfʉt/
afoot adverb: on foot. (means of locomotion, walking).
Adverb
afoot (not comparable)
- On foot. (means of locomotion, walking)
- Is it fit, let your mightyship say, / That I, like some pitiful flirt, / Should tarry within doors all day, / Or else trudge it afoot in the dirt?1765, Robert Dodsley, A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes, volume 6, page 295
- Synonyms:
- by foot
- On foot. (support of the body, standing)
- In motion; in action; astir; stirring; in progress.
- Hamlet: […]I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot, / Even with the very comment of thy soul / Observe mine uncle:[…]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Possibly some chemical experiment was afoot; possibly----Well, it was no business of mine to speculate upon why he wanted it.1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
Adjective
afoot (not comparable)
- Walking or running; using the feet for locomotion, as opposed to on horseback or riding in a vehicle.
- "The dogs were no sooner let loose, than the hare was afoot."1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 77
- He had been afoot on the prairie for two days when he met Bert Barricune.1949, Dorothy M. Johnson, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 91
- That is on foot, in motion, in action, in progress.
- Sunny moves through these final days quickly, easily, buoyed by routine even though change is afoot in all directions.2011, Maile Chapman, Your Presence Is Requested at Suvanto: A Novel
- Now there are plans afoot to introduce a couple of extra trains to the timetable in December, with the long-term goal of a doubling of the service to eight trains a day.2019 October, James Abbott, “Esk Valley revival”, in Modern Railways, page 76
- Synonyms:
- animate, astir, cursory, dynamic, in motion, mobile, moving, on the move, on the wing, under sail
afoot meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam
afoot in Tamil
- தொடங்கி, ஆயத்தமாகி, விழிப்புற்று, எழுந்து, நடந்துகொண்டு, நடப்பில்
afoot in Urdu
- چلتا, پیدل
afoot in Telugu
- afoot
- నడుస్తూ naḍustū
afoot in Malayalam
- happening, going on, around
- നടപടിയിലിരിക്കുന്ന, ആരംഭിച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന, നടന്നുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന, സംഭവിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന, പുരോഗമിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന, ചുറ്റിക്കറങ്ങുന്ന
More languagesFewer languages
- afoot in Arabic
- عَلَى قَدَم وَسَاق ʕalā qadam wasāq
Examples of afoot in a sentence
- In San Francisco and in New Jersey, to quote two other examples, plans are afoot to subsidise new commuter line construction or existing operations out of toll revenue from state highways or bridges.1959 October, “Talking of Trains: Paying for the commuters”, in Trains Illustrated, page 458:
- Laszlo's missing, eh?” “Yeah.” “Mm, the game is afoot.”2023 August 31, William Meny & Paul Simms, “A Weekend at Morrigan Manor” (9:23 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5...
Synonyms of afoot
23 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Origin of afoot
From a- + foot.
Words that rhyme with afoot
Questions about afoot
- What does afoot mean?
- Afoot means on foot. (means of locomotion, walking).
- What is afoot in Tamil?
- Afoot in Tamil is தொடங்கி, ஆயத்தமாகி, விழிப்புற்று. See Afoot meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use afoot in a sentence?
- In San Francisco and in New Jersey, to quote two other examples, plans are afoot to subsidise new commuter line construction or existing operations out of toll revenue from state highways or bridges.
- What part of speech is afoot?
- Afoot can be an adverb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce afoot?
- Afoot is pronounced /əˈfʊt/.
Words near afoot in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: afoot (page history and authors); afoot (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); afoot (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); నడుస్తూ (Telugu) (page history and authors); afoot (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-afoot.wav.
Cite this entry: “afoot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/afoot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.