Foot-hot, adv. (Old English).—In hot haste; hot-foot (q.v.)
1848. Burton, Waggeries, etc., p. 65. I’m darned if I don’t streak it to the Squire’s foot-hot.
Footing, subs. (common).—Money paid on entering upon new duties, or on being received into a workshop or society: as at sea when a comrade first goes aloft. Formerly foot-ale: cf., Garnish. Fr., arroser ses galons = to christen one’s uniform.
1777. Howard, State of Prisons in England and Wales, quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 295. A cruel custom obtains in most of our Gaols, which is that of the prisoners demanding of a new comer garnish, footing, or (as it is called in some London Gaols) chummage.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 48; I must instantly pay down two shillings for my footing.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i., 211. I was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who swore I should not come in their beats until I had paid my footing.
1830. Carleton, Collegian’s Colleen Bawn, 94. ‘Pay your footing now, Master Kyrle Daly, before you go farther,’ said one.
1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iii. ‘Waiter, half-a-dozen of iced champagne here, to pay for Mr. Slick’s footin’.’
1891. Clark Russell, An Ocean Tragedy, p. 86. I was going aloft and wished to pay my footing.
Footle, verb., and Footling, adj. (colloquial).—To dawdle, trifle, potter; dawdling, trifling, pottering; messing about (q.v.).