caught flat-footed

Idioms  

1. Caught unprepared, taken by surprise, as in The reporter's question caught the President flat-footed. This usage comes from one or another sport in which a player should be on his or her toes, ready to act. [c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

caught flat-footed

It stands to reason the Fed can’t afford to be caught flat-footed on inflation again.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

OpenAI was caught flat-footed after Anthropic released a new version of its coding tool Claude Code last fall, but has since poured more resources into its Codex coding assistant and prioritized sales to business customers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026

Marrone’s firefighters poured into Pacific Palisades that morning to assist the city, which had been caught flat-footed after staffing a fraction of its available engines amid a parched landscape and forecasts of life-threatening winds.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2025

But Newsom had just admitted he was also caught flat-footed, too.

From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2024

It was natural that such an excuse would be offered when the fellows were caught flat-footed.

From Interference and Other Football Stories by Harold Morrow Sherman