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Synonyms

flat-footed

British  
/ ˌflætˈfʊtɪd /

adjective

  1. having flatfoot

  2. informal

    1. clumsy or awkward

    2. downright and uncompromising

  3. informal off guard or unawares (often in the phrase catch flat-footed )

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
flat-footed Idioms  

  1. see caught flat-footed.

Other Word Forms

  • flat-footedly adverb
  • flat-footedness noun

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

Wood dictated the tempo across 12 rounds against a frustrated, flat-footed Warrington.

From BBC • Feb. 21, 2026

Caught flat-footed, Google declared its own “code red” that year as it raced to catch up.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 9, 2025

Gomez raced clear of the flat-footed Newcastle defence and fired against the near post.

From Barron's • Nov. 5, 2025

After that she didn't play around with the soldiers any more but only with a few flat-footed, short-sighted young men in town who couldn't get into the army at all.

From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.