Word.ws English Dictionary

spade foot

spade foot noun: a block-shaped foot higher than wide and tapering slightly toward the bottom. The spade foot usually terminates a tapering leg, and the top of the foot is wider than the leg. Also the alternative form of spadefoot.

Noun

spade foot (plural spade foots or spade feet)

  1. A block-shaped foot higher than wide and tapering slightly toward the bottom. The spade foot usually terminates a tapering leg, and the top of the foot is wider than the leg.
    • The spade foot leg may be used as an alternate design.1929 June, Charles A. King, “Constructing a Piano Bench”, in Popular Science, volume 114, number 6, page 79
    • Also, the glazing pattern of the bookcase traces simple diamonds rather than more elaborate arches or other curved elements, and the tapered legs end without a spade foot or an additional taper at the cuff.2004, Philip D. Zimmerman, Charles Thomas Butler, Catherine E. Hutchins, American Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts from the Watson Collection, →ISBN, page 93
  2. The foot that is habitually used to put pressure on a spade when digging.
    • Nevertheless, one foot is generally used in preference to the other in such movements as digging (hence sometimes called the spade foot), in hopping, in making a leap, &c.1896, Chambers's Journal, page 10
    • Rife says as regards the spade foot, "the fact is always overlooked that the foot used in spading is determined entirely by the bimanual dextrality"1927, Granville Stanley Hall, Edward Bradford Titchener, Karl M. Dallenbach, The American Journal of Psychology - Volume 38, page 336

Also used as

spade foot is also the alternative form of spadefoot.

Examples of spade foot in a sentence

  • First was his straight tapered leg, sometimes with a spade foot, at other times tipped in brass.2011, George Grotz, The Furniture Doctor, →ISBN:
  • I believe every boy will hop on his spade foot. at least I do so, and I am not left-handed; and I instinctively do so because I dig with this foot.2012, Daniel Wilson, The Right Hand: Left-Handedness, →ISBN, page 36:

Forms of spade foot

pluralspade foots
pluralspade feet

Questions about spade foot

What does spade foot mean?
Spade foot means a block-shaped foot higher than wide and tapering slightly toward the bottom. The spade foot usually terminates a tapering leg, and the top of the foot is wider than the leg.
How do you use spade foot in a sentence?
First was his straight tapered leg, sometimes with a spade foot, at other times tipped in brass.
What part of speech is spade foot?
Spade foot is a noun.
What is the plural of spade foot?
The plural of spade foot is spade foots.

Words near spade foot in the dictionary

  1. spadassins
  2. spaddle
  3. spaddles
  4. spade
  5. spade feet
  6. spade foot
  7. spade foots
  8. spade fork
  9. spade forks
  10. spade man
  11. spade mashie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spade foot (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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