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
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.
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
She sat down on the bed, back propped against the footboard, legs stretched along the bed’s length, gazing up at the ceiling, as if testing it out.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
