noun
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a treadle or foot-operated lever on a machine
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a vertical board at the foot of a bed
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of footboard
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.
See Examples For:
In the oil painting, a young woman in a red dress sits on the edge of a motel bed, gripping the footboard tensely.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025
“My principle inheritance has always been guilt,” writes Schwarcz, who recalls nights of listening to his insomniac father’s heels rhythmically kick the bed’s footboard.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2023
One drawing entitled “Little Willie’s Dream After Dinner,” showing Willie cowering in bed, while a gigantic Easter bunny sits on the footboard.
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2019
Chest throbbing, he hid behind the footboard and covered his head with his hands.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2017
I left the road, crossed the ditch on a footboard and walked along the field beyond the ditch.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
Young men cling for their lives on the footboards, while the mashed throng inside gasps for air.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2022
Get rid of footboards or anything that sticks up that you can bump into.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 25, 2022
Are there angry AIs that only understand mathematical patterns keyed into footboards at a frantic rate?
From The Verge ● Oct. 5, 2018
There’s a wheelchair mount on the back of the sidecar, and special footboards that keep my feet in place.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2018
He pulled me up, took pity on me, placed me on the footboards, and drove home with me crouching there in tears.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
