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footbinding

noun

Etymology

From foot + binding.

  1. inherited from byndynge
  2. compounded as footbinding — “foot + binding”

Definitions

  1. The old Chinese custom of binding women's feet with cloth to prevent them from growing…

    The old Chinese custom of binding women's feet with cloth to prevent them from growing with age.

    • More recent studies have shown that foot-binding was likely practiced not purely for the sake of marriage, but also to keep girls at home and engaged in handicrafts, such as spinning cotton, in order to contribute to their family’s income.

  2. The material used to bind feet for this reason.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for footbinding. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA