English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfuːt.lɪŋ/

Adjective

footling ‎(comparative more footling, superlative most footling)

1. Trivial; unimportant; useless; silly; inept; irritating.
   • 1919, Jerome K. Jerome, All Roads Lead to Calvary, ch. 16:

     He was explaining to her things about the air service. . . . "Isn't it rather dangerous work?" she asked. She felt it was a footling question even as she asked it.

   • 1922, P. G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves, ch. 7:

     Only a couple of days ago I was compelled to take him off a case because his handling of it was so footling.

   • 1948 May 24, "United Nations: Over to You," Time (retrieved 14 Oct 2013):

     For 28 footling days the 58-nation General Assembly had been debating the now-famous U.S. afterthought: to postpone partition and substitute a U.N. trusteeship for Palestine.

   • 2009 July 15, Carlo Rotella, "The Genre Artist," New York Times (retrieved 14 Oct 2013):

     “Why did you persist in writing hurlothrumbo romances of the footling sort favored by mooncalfs?”

Translations

Verb

footling

1. present participle of footle

Etymology 2

foot +‎ -ling.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfʊt.lɪŋ/

Noun

footling ‎(plural footlings)

1. A fetus oriented so that, at birth, its feet will emerge first. A type of breech birth.
   • 2006 Jan. 29, "Excerpt from Physical: An American Checkup by James McManus," New York Times (retrieved 14 Oct 2013):

     In 1999 my fourth child (third daughter) made an unexpected footling breech presentation.