English

Noun

footpad ‎(plural footpads)

1. The soft underside of an animal's paw.
2. (medicine) A medicated bandage for the treatment of corns and warts.
3. (archaic) A thief on foot who robs travellers on the road.
   • 1874, Marcus Clarke, “chapter V”, in For the Term of His Natural Life:

     The fraudulent clerk and the flash "cracksman" interchanged experiences. The smuggler's stories of lucky ventures and successful runs were capped by the footpad’s reminiscences of foggy nights and stolen watches.

   • 1912, The New York Times:

     Col. Isaac Trumbo, who made a fortune in Utah and lost it in San Francisco, died here to-day of injuries received last Saturday night, when he was beaten by footpads.

   • 1954 October 11, “Advertising”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, N.S.W.: National Library of Australia, retrieved 28 February 2013, page 5:

     Coach Leather. The pliant but resolute stuff our grandfathers utilised to keep out wind, weather and footpads on the Great North Road or the Gundagai Track, according to whether you are Third or Fourth G.A.

4. (Australia) (also foot pad) An unmade, minor walking trail formed only by foot traffic.
   • 1933 October 26, “Nemarluck badly wounded”, in Western Mail, Perth, W.A.: National Library of Australia, retrieved 23 February 2013, page 31:

     Nemarluck, if wounded in the way described by the aborigines at Talc Head, will keep to the beaten footpad leading from Delissaville to the Finnis River, and in his weakened state, will not camp any night far from a waterhole or without a fire.

   • 1950 December 22, “Bush tracks for motorists”, in The Argus (The Argus Week-end Magazine), Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia, retrieved 23 February 2013, page 29:

     The rough dray track that leads to the south-cast soon becomes a poorly defined footpad which follows the tortuous pattern of the main spur through to Mount Everard, and then away to east and south to the far corner of the forest.

   • 2008, John Chapman; Monica Chapman, Overland Track, ISBN 978-1-920995-05-8, page 56:

     Ignore the minor foot pad to the left — it is a scrubby track leading to a climbers' site known as Geryon Campsite.

   • 2010?, “Mt Hotham Bushwalking and Trails”, in Hotham:

     This AAWT track varies from a four wheel drive track along the Barry Mountains to a foot pad across the snow grass plains of the high country from Hotham to Mt Bogong.