ALL FOURS Definition & Meaning

all fours

noun

all four limbs or extremities; the four legs or feet of an animal or both arms and both legs or both hands and both feet of a person:
The cat rolled off the ledge but landed on all fours.
(used with a singular verb) Also called high-low-jack, old sledge, pitch, seven-up. Cards. a game for two or three players or two partnerships in which a 52-card pack is used, the object being to win special scoring values for the highest trump, the lowest trump, the jack, the ace, the ten, and the face cards.

all fours

noun

both the arms and legs of a person or all the legs of a quadruped (esp in the phrase on all fours )
another name for seven-up

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of all fours¹

First recorded in 1555–65

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Idioms and Phrases

on all fours,
1. in conformity with; corresponding exactly with.
2. (of a person) on the hands and feet, or the hands and knees:
  I had to go on all fours to squeeze through the low opening.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

So it was something of a branding problem when a video appeared on the internet earlier this year showing Halili on all fours wearing a minidress, while several other scantily-clad women dance around her, giggling.

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He crouches on all fours in his silk pajamas like a panther ready to pounce.

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The bear casually slumps back down onto all fours, then looks up and gazes at me briefly.

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The Durham pair added 37 from 31 balls before Stokes charged at Noman, comically flung his bat into the leg side and was left on all fours as wicketkeeper Muhammad Rizwan removed the bails.

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The man limps out and rubs his face before falling on all fours as the officers drive away.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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