all fours

noun

1. all four limbs or extremities; the four legs or feet of an animal or both arms and both legs or both hands and both feet of a person:

   The cat rolled off the ledge but landed on all fours.

2. (used with a singular verb) Also called high-low-jack, old sledge, pitch, seven-up. Cards. a game for two or three players or two partnerships in which a 52-card pack is used, the object being to win special scoring values for the highest trump, the lowest trump, the jack, the ace, the ten, and the face cards.

all fours

noun

1. both the arms and legs of a person or all the legs of a quadruped (esp in the phrase on all fours )
2. See seven-up
   another name for seven-up

Word History and Origins

Origin of all fours¹

First recorded in 1555–65

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. on all fours,
   1. in conformity with; corresponding exactly with.
   2. (of a person) on the hands and feet, or the hands and knees:

      I had to go on all fours to squeeze through the low opening.

Example Sentences

It's all a muddle, a compromise, a monstrosity, like everything else you produce; there's nothing in it that goes on all-fours.

From Project Gutenberg

Now we ran among the birches; now stooping behind low humps upon the mountain side; now crawling on all-fours among the heather.

From Project Gutenberg

"All-fours," derived its name from the four chances involved, for each of which a point was scored.

From Project Gutenberg

Through the smoke, and over the sloping peak of the roof from the rear, came a slim, dark shape on its all-fours.

From Project Gutenberg

For three years she was a cripple, and could move about only on all-fours; but she was resigned to the will of God.

From Project Gutenberg