How to Use flat-footed in a Sentence

flat-footed

adjective
  • The event caught police flat-footed as the crowd grew into the hundreds.
    — Darcy Costello, Baltimore Sun, 26 Jan. 2024
  • There is no point in being caught flat-footed when an eager buyer comes knocking.
    — Gerry Spitzer, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023
  • Plus, as someone with high arches, taking on a flat-footed shoe sounded painful at best.
    — Christian Allaire, Vogue, 12 Sep. 2023
  • Labor appeared to be caught flat-footed when Chavez didn’t make the final cut.
    — Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 May 2024
  • Yet not everyone was caught flat-footed by the Hamas assault.
    — Garry Kasparov, WSJ, 2 Nov. 2023
  • Yet she was caught flat-footed once interest rates began rising.
    — Vicky Ge Huang, WSJ, 15 Nov. 2023
  • Yet, like town officials, school officials say they have been caught flat-footed.
    — Samantha J. Gross, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Sep. 2023
  • Women tend to have stronger quadriceps relative to their hamstrings, and to land more flat-footed and with stiffer knees.
    — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2023
  • Were that to happen, Republicans cannot be caught flat-footed once again on the issue of health care.
    — The Editors, National Review, 4 Dec. 2023
  • Jones plays with a lane-jumping mentality in off coverage when flat-footed but could succumb to double moves in the pros.
    — Scott Horner, The Indianapolis Star, 19 Apr. 2023
  • Parents have been caught flat-footed partly because the dealers are so good at connecting their product with their young consumers on social media.
    — Sharon Grigsby, Dallas News, 8 Sep. 2023
  • But the strategy employed by the lawmakers in recent weeks caught TikTok flat-footed.
    — Cecilia Kang, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2024
  • But the person also predicted that some of crypto’s allies in Washington could be caught flat-footed by the banking ramp-up.
    — Rachel Witkowski, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2025
  • The Rangers had some early success using it to clog the middle of the ice, but too often got caught flat-footed and were left vulnerable to odd-man rushes.
    — Vincent Z. Mercogliano, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Garcia reverted to his old habits of standing flat-footed and jerking his head straight back, offering Duarte a welcoming target.
    — Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2023
  • Interestingly the Milei administration appeared to have been caught flat-footed by the news.
    — Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
  • Peloton, which had funneled money into meeting the mountain of unprecedented consumer demand, appeared to be caught flat-footed.
    — Megan Cerullo, CBS News, 3 May 2024
  • Some are designed for flat-footed people, some offer more support for higher arches, some are designed to handle wet environments, and some are suited for dry land only.
    — Todd Plummer, Robb Report, 13 May 2023
  • During the pandemic, the global automotive market passed a milestone that caught the world’s major automakers flat-footed.
    — Ben Dooley, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2023
  • Austrian goalkeeper Alexander Schlager was caught flat-footed and looked back at Olwan in disbelief.
    — Cam Inman, Mercury News, 17 June 2026
  • Be careful about withdrawing retirement funds If a job loss leaves you flat-footed, you may be tempted to raid your 401(k) or IRA for fast cash.
    — Daniel De Visé, USA TODAY, 12 Jan. 2024
  • Yet the Bulls came out flat-footed, allowing the Hawks to throw a 36-point punch in the first quarter and establish a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter.
    — Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 5 Apr. 2023
  • Institutional investors were caught flat-footed when the long-time arbitrage opportunity abruptly vanished.
    — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune Crypto, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Those shortages helped elevate chip-industry revenue over the past three years, as automakers and their top suppliers sought to build up inventory to avoid being caught flat-footed by the absence of crucial components.
    — Dan Gallagher, WSJ, 4 Jan. 2024
  • It should be noted that Rafael Devers, standing flat-footed and playing spectator, was slow to break to third base for what seemingly would have been a tough throw for Casas to make at a moving target.
    — Julian McWilliams, BostonGlobe.com, 25 June 2023
  • The conversation on computers and automation has changed lately, and Apple, which was caught flat-footed last year with the proliferation of AI, just stepped right on the rake.
    — Alex Cranz, The Verge, 8 May 2024
  • That is partly because many companies are reluctant to risk losing workers after having been caught flat-footed when the economy roared back from the brief but brutal 2020 pandemic recession.
    — Paul Wiseman, Fortune, 25 Jan. 2024
  • To one degree or another, these banks were caught flat-footed when the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in response to high inflation starting in mid-2022.
    — Politifact Staff Writer, Dallas News, 5 May 2023
  • Presented with a chance to claim a third straight series win against a second-division team, the Red Sox nonetheless lumbered flat-footed through most of Thursday afternoon’s contest against the Nationals.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'flat-footed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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