On Tue, 2 May 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:
> [Could someone gloss the term "wrongfoots"?]
It's a soccer term -- you're all set to score and you've got your foot cocked but ball pops out suddenly not to your kicking foot but to the one you've got your weight on. It's almost impossible to untangle yourself before the defender closes the gap, and you look like a complete klutz right in front of everybody, helpless to strike even though the ball came right to you.
Like most sports metaphors, it's stretched in common usage beyond its original meaning. When used as an active verb like here, it means to turn the tables -- your opponents were making you look bad, and now you've deftly made them look bad instead.
Michael __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com