Definition of "footpad" [foot•pad]

• A thief who preys on pedestrians. (noun)
• A plate or similar structure on the leg of a spacecraft that distributes weight and helps prevent sinking after landing. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A footpad is a robber or thief specializing in pedestrian victims."
• "But at least there was one Border highwayman -- or is "footpad" here the more correct term?"
• "Ah, but those were the times when life was worth the living; when a man who went out by night knew not at which dark corner a "footpad" might leap upon and slay him; when wild beasts roamed the forest and the jungles, and there were savage men, and countries yet unexplored."