footboard

[foot-bawrd, -bohrd]

noun

1. a board or small platform on which to support the foot or feet. foot.

2. an upright piece across the foot of a bedstead.

3. a treadle.

footboard

/ ˈfʊtˌbɔːd /

noun

1. a treadle or foot-operated lever on a machine

2. a vertical board at the foot of a bed

Word History and Origins

Origin of footboard¹

An Americanism dating back to 1755–65; foot + board

Example Sentences

In the oil painting, a young woman in a red dress sits on the edge of a motel bed, gripping the footboard tensely.

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One was killed when his head hit an overhead railway bridge when he was traveling on the roof of a compartment while the other succumbed to injuries after he fell down from the train’s footboard.

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“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.

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Young men cling for their lives on the footboards, while the mashed throng inside gasps for air.

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For all of his epic anti-Catholic rants, Money’s deathbed had the figure of the Virgin Mary at its head and a skeleton carved into its footboard.

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