[suh-vat] 
| a sport resembling boxing but permitting blows to be delivered with the feet as well as the hands. |
| sa·vate (sə-vāt', -vät') n. A form of boxing in which kicking as well as punching is permitted. [French, from Old French, old shoe.] |
savate
(Middle French: "old shoe"), French sport of fighting by kicking, practiced until the first half of the 19th century. It occurred mainly among the lower orders of Parisian society. When savate died out, its more skillful elements were combined with those of English bare-knuckle pugilism to produce la boxe francaise. The name savate continued to be used to describe any form of fighting in which the use of the feet was permitted. Two classic blows were a back heel aimed at the stomach and a double mule kick in the face delivered from a handstand position
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