backfoot
backfoot verb: to put on the defensive; to put off balance.
Verb
backfoot (third-person singular simple present backfoots, present participle backfooting, simple past and past participle backfooted)
- To put on the defensive; to put off balance.
- Hamlet is bitter, evasive, now backfooting them, now attacking, now genial - their job isn't going to be easy.1996, Kenneth Branagh, “The Film diaries”, in Hamlet, page 188
- Koizumi's government has been backfooted by the indictment of Horie, the former CEO of Livedoor Co., on charges of violating securities regulations2006 February 21, “Japan opposition gears up for showdown on Livedoor”, in Boston Globe
backfoot meaning in Tamil
backfoot in Tamil
- தகர் நிலை
Forms of backfoot
| third-person singular present | backfoots |
|---|---|
| present participle | backfooting |
| past participle | backfooted |
| past | backfooted |
| alternative form | back-foot |
Origin of backfoot
From back + foot.
Questions about backfoot
- What does backfoot mean?
- Backfoot means to put on the defensive; to put off balance.
- What is backfoot in Tamil?
- Backfoot in Tamil is தகர் நிலை. See Backfoot meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is backfoot?
- Backfoot is a verb.
- What is the past tense of backfoot?
- The past tense of backfoot is backfooted.
Words near backfoot in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: backfoot (page history and authors); backfoot (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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:
Cite this entry: “backfoot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backfoot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.