footstool (futstol)

[ Adele sat down, without a word, on the footstool I pointed out to her. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, xvii. Sir Aylmer with a sudden execration drove The footstool from before him, and arose. Tennyson, Aylmer's Field. Fred eric us Barb a ro a the Emperour lay downe his necke as a foote - stool to Pope Alexander the third to treade upon it. Coryat, Crudities, I. 266. 2. Figuratively, a person or thing that is trodden upon or oppre ed; hence, one who is an abject thrall, dependent, or tool. sees. The people of the land are the foot - stoole of the Phari- Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 147. Hold, mightiest of kings! I am thy va al, Thy footstool , that durst not presume to look On thy offended face. Fletcher , Double Marriage, i. 2. God's footstool, or the footstool, the earth in allusion to the following pa age of the Bible: Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Isa. lxvi. 1.