Word.ws English Dictionary

on all-fours

on all-fours is the alternative spelling of on all fours.

Meaning of on all fours

Phrase

on all fours

  1. (idiomatic) On one's hands and knees.
    • A bulky form was seen rising aft, and began marching on all fours with the movements of some big cautious beast.1897, Joseph Conrad, chapter 3, in The Nigger Of The ‘Narcissus’
  2. (idiomatic, often) In a manner which is similar in nature or effect to something else; consistent.
    • The paternal longing ran on all fours with her own desire.1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter 39, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

Questions about on all-fours

What is on all-fours the alternative spelling of?
On all-fours is the alternative spelling of on all fours.

Words near on all-fours in the dictionary

  1. on air
  2. on alert
  3. on all counts
  4. on all fours
  5. on all hands
  6. on all-fours
  7. on an empty stomach
  8. on an equal footing
  9. on an impulse
  10. on an irregular basis
  11. on and off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on all-fours (page history and authors); on all fours (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: “on all-fours.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_all-fours. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.