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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

mud·sill

Audio Help [muhd-sil] Pronunciation Key

–noun

the lowest sill of a structure, usually placed in or on the ground.

Also called footplate.

[Origin: 1675–85; mud + sill

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
mudsill

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mud·sill Audio Help (mŭd'sĭl') Pronunciation Key
n. The lowest sill, block, or timber supporting a building, located at or below ground level.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
mudsill

1685, "lowest sill of a house," from mud + sill (q.v.). The word entered U.S. political history in a speech by James M. Hammond of South Carolina, March 4, 1858, in U.S. Senate, alluding to the very mudsills of society, and the term subsequently was embraced by Northern workers in the pre-Civil War sectional rivalry.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Mudsill

Mud"sill`\, n. The lowest sill of a structure, usually embedded in the soil; the lowest timber of a house; also, that sill or timber of a bridge which is laid at the bottom of the water. See Sill.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Mudsill

Mud"sill`\, n. Fig.: A person of the lowest stratum of society; -- a term of opprobrium or contempt. [Southern U. S.]

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