Definition of "footpad"
footpad
noun
plural footpads
(archaic) A thief on foot who robs travellers on the road.
Quotations
Coach Leather. The pliant but resolute stuff our grandfathers utilised to keep out wind, weather and footpads on the Great North Road or the Gundagai Track, according to whether you are Third or Fourth G.A.
1954 October 11, “Advertising”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, N.S.W.: National Library of Australia, retrieved 28 February 2013, page 5
“The thief-catcher always sought out the cutpurses and burglars and footpads in a town; he claimed they knew more of what was really going on then any official."
1993, Robert Jordan, “Chapter 16: An Unexpected Offer”, in The Fires of Heaven (The Wheel of Time; 5), New York: Tor Books, published 1994, page 316
(Australia) An unmade, minor walking trail formed only by foot traffic.
Quotations
Nemarluck, if wounded in the way described by the aborigines at Talc Head, will keep to the beaten footpad leading from Delissaville to the Finnis River, and in his weakened state, will not camp any night far from a waterhole or without a fire.
1933 October 26, “Nemarluck badly wounded”, in Western Mail, Perth, W.A.: National Library of Australia, retrieved 23 February 2013, page 31
The rough dray track that leads to the south-cast soon becomes a poorly defined footpad which follows the tortuous pattern of the main spur through to Mount Everard, and then away to east and south to the far corner of the forest.
1950 December 22, “Bush tracks for motorists”, in The Argus (The Argus Week-end Magazine), Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia, retrieved 23 February 2013, page 29
verb
third-person singular simple present footpads, present participle footpadding, simple past and past participle footpadded
(archaic) To rob travellers on the road.
Quotations
Before that 'e footpadded round Covent Garden with a crew o' other masterless soldiers an' suchlike, calling 'imself "Captain Gun", as nasty a bill o' goods as ever slit your pocket or cut your throat,' Pope added, with loathing for the many thousands of defeated men who had limped home to live off the city streets which, by right and custom already belonged to established families of beggars and pickpockets, dog snatchers and cloak snitchers.
1988, Michael Talbot, To the ends of the earth, page 15
Quotations