foothill

[foo t-hil]

noun

a low hill at the base of a mountain or mountain range.

Origin of foothill

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50; foot + hill

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for foothill

Historical Examples of foothill

And behind her, like a foothill in the shadow of a mountain, was Laban.
The Portygee
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
The lower third of the mountains, that is, the foothill section, is only tree-dotted.
Wild Life on the Rockies
Enos A. Mills
It was not many days after my arrival in the Foothill country that I began to hear of Gwen.
The Sky Pilot
Ralph Connor
The foothill Indians were not a particularly intelligent lot.
Down the Mother Lode
Vivia Hemphill
Neither had he an interest in the foothill country to the west.
The Rules of the Game
Stewart Edward White

British Dictionary definitions for foothill

foothill

noun

(often plural) a lower slope of a mountain or a relatively low hill at the foot of a mountain

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

Word Origin and History for foothill

"a hill that leads up to a mountain," 1850, American English, from foot (n.) + hill.