1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 502. The mob got me up a break (collection), and I got between five or six foont (sovereigns).
Foot, verb. (common).—1. To acknowledge payment; e.g., to foot a bill; cf., Foot-up.
1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 183. If our plan succeeded the landlord was to foot the bill, and stand treat.
2. (football and colloquial).—To kick; to hoof (q.v.). Cf., Merchant of Venice, I., 3, You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur.
1852. Bristed, Upper Ten Thousand, p. 223. Both teams were footing their very best.
To foot it, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To walk. For synonyms, see Pad the Hoof.
1892. Price, From Arctic Ocean to Yellow Sea. The discomfort of having to foot it.
To foot-up, verb. phr. (American colloquial).—To sum up the total (of a bill); to tot up (q.v.). Hence, to pay; to discharge one’s obligations; to reckon up (q.v.); to summarize both merits and defects, and strike a balance. Footing-up = the reckoning, the sum total. Fr., gamberger.
1865. Sala, A Trip to Barbary. The Arab abhors statistics. He won’t be tabulated if he could help it, and were you to go to Algeria, Doctor Colenso, you would find a deeply rooted objection among the people to the reckoning, or footing-up, as the Americans call it, of anything animate or inanimate.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 310. To foot a bill, by paying the amount at the bottom of the account, is a phrase equally well known abroad and with us.