footmanship
footmanship noun: the post or position of footman; the skill or art of a footman.
Noun
footmanship (uncountable)
- The post or position of footman; the skill or art of a footman.
- As the precious ‘lad’ grew older, and divers indoor potentates died off, the housekeeper had power to push her nephew on to pageship, footmanship, and divers other similar crafts, even to the final post of butler […]1844, Martin Farquhar Tupper, chapter 23, in The Crock of Gold, London: Richard Bentley, page 187
- […] a rich-liveried footman was lounging in an easy chair, with his heels as high as his head […] and from this comfortable position he budged not an inch at the importunate summons […]. “What!” cried the primitive and provincial serving man, “don’t you answer the drawing-room bell?” “Not unless...1854, Grace Greenwood, Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe, Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, page 51
- The skill or ability to run (of humans or animals).
- Both twaine of them doe straine themselues and lay on footemanship,
Who may best runne with all his force the tother to outstrip,1567, Arthur Golding, transl., The XV Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis, Book 1 - […] your Foales by scoping & galloping thereon, shall be brought to such nimblenesse, strength, and true footemanship, that they shall not only haue a most excellent braue trotte, but also during theyr lyues […] they shalbe frée from that foule vice of stumbling.1593, Gervase Markham, chapter 1, in A Discource of Horsmanshippe, London: Richard Smith
- Both twaine of them doe straine themselues and lay on footemanship,
Examples of footmanship in a sentence
- “What!” cried the primitive and provincial serving man, “don’t you answer the drawing-room bell?” “Not unless they persewere,” was the cool response of his footmanship.1854, Grace Greenwood, Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe, Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, page 51:
- Can you do anything else but footmanship?1909, Gelett Burgess, Lady Méchante, Cambridge University Press, Book IV, Chapter Eight, p. 378:
- They too were ranged in order of rank: four chamberlains, four Hussars, four Chasseurs, and four butlers—these were the degrees within the hierarchy of footmanship.1949, Lajos Zilahy, translated by John Pauker, The Dukays, New York: Prentice-Hall, Part Three, Chapter 5, p. 177:
- And yet for All That, says the Fox, I have Baffled more of ’em with My Wiles and my Shifts, then ever You did with your Footmanship.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Abstemius, &c.] Fab[le] Fable 325. A Fox and a Hare. (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in...
Origin of footmanship
From footman + -ship.
Questions about footmanship
- What does footmanship mean?
- Footmanship means the post or position of footman; the skill or art of a footman.
- How do you use footmanship in a sentence?
- “What!” cried the primitive and provincial serving man, “don’t you answer the drawing-room bell?” “Not unless they persewere,” was the cool response of his footmanship.
- What part of speech is footmanship?
- Footmanship is a noun.
Words near footmanship in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: footmanship (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.
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Cite this entry: “footmanship.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/footmanship. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.