Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In mining, that wall of a vein or lode which is under the miner's feet when he is at work: opposed to hanging wall.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Shawn O'Connor for the Wall Street Journal Downtown Aspen Last year, hedge-fund titan John Paulson paid $24.5 million for a 13,000-square-foot estate with a sandy beach, surrounding ponds, a 35-foot-wall of disappearing glass, views of the four ski mountains and a media room with leather seats.

    The Most Expensive Town in America Nancy Keates 2011

  • The minerals associated with the quartz in this vein, especially the cuprite and mispickel, are found most abundantly upon the foot-wall side, or underside of the quartz itself.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 79, May, 1864 Various

  • Winzes to be used for filling should be put on the hanging-wall side of the area to be filled, for the filling poured down will then reach the foot-wall side of the stopes with a minimum of handling.

    Principles of Mining Valuation, Organization and Administration Herbert Hoover 1919

  • In dips 35° to 50° this trough, laid on the foot-wall, gives a sufficiently smooth surface for the ore to run upon.

    Principles of Mining Valuation, Organization and Administration Herbert Hoover 1919

  • In places, however, the crystals of mica occur in abundance, sometimes near the foot-wall, again near the hanging-wall and sometimes scattered irregularly through the central portion of the vein.

    North Carolina and its Resources. North Carolina. Board of Agriculture. 1896

  • With the discovery of this foot-wall, Joe called a halt.

    The Boys of Crawford's Basin The Story of a Mountain Ranch in the Early Days of Colorado Chase [Illustrator] Emerson 1887

  • But that we had found a real, genuine vein, even we, novices as we were at the business, could not doubt, and very heartily we shook hands with each other when our trenching at length brought us up against the limestone foot-wall.

    The Boys of Crawford's Basin The Story of a Mountain Ranch in the Early Days of Colorado Chase [Illustrator] Emerson 1887

  • We had a fine view, from here, of the energetic Visp, as it makes its first plunge into the world from under a huge arch of solid ice, worn through the foot-wall of the great Gorner Glacier; and we could also see the Furggenbach, which is the outlet of the Furggen Glacier.

    A Tramp Abroad 1879

  • We had a fine view, from here, of the energetic Visp, as it makes its first plunge into the world from under a huge arch of solid ice, worn through the foot-wall of the great

    A Tramp Abroad — Volume 06 Mark Twain 1872

  • The people had sunk several pits in places likely to yield 'kindly quartz,' and they had made no mistakes as to the overlay of the lode, its foot-wall or its hanging-wall.

    To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative Richard Francis Burton 1855

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