footsie

[ foot-see ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, Informal.

Sometimes footsies. the act of flirting or sharing a surreptitious intimacy.

Footsie

/ ˈfʊtsɪ /

footsie

/ ˈfʊtsɪ /

informal.
flirtation involving the touching together of feet, knees, etc (esp in the phrase play footsie )

Origin of footsie¹

First recorded in 1930–35; foot + -sie, spelling variant of -sy

play footsie / footsies with, Informal.
1. to flirt with, especially by clandestinely touching someone's foot or leg; be slyly or furtively intimate with.
2. to seek advantage from, especially by discreet or stealthy means; curry favor with.

A sign that the Gulf States and/or Turkey told the White House they were getting out if the footsie continued?

The Federal Reserve, which was just caught playing footsie with Goldman Sachs, is as shadowy as it is powerful.

A century ago, or more, it was the Democratic Party that was playing footsie with the Ku Klux Klan.

For now, Lieberman seems most comfortable playing footsie with the Democrats.

This weekend, Sarah Palin again played footsie with a 2012 presidential run.

He was evidently not going to play footsie with, or show any favoritism whatever toward, any woman aboard the ship.

If you think you can make your bed by playing footsie with an old fud who has only a year to go, try it.

D'you think I'd even try to play footsie with Barbara Warner?

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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