mudsill

[ muhd-sil ]

/ ˈmʌdˌsɪl /

the lowest sill of a structure, usually placed in or on the ground.

Also called footplate.

Origin of mudsill

First recorded in 1675–85; mud + sill

This mudsill of the world has learned to read and write and begun to think.

The Root of Evil |Thomas Dixon
He was skillful with his hands, and must therefore be a "mudsill."

Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field |Thomas W. Knox
We push below this mudsill the derelicts and half-men, whom we hate and despise, and seek to build above it—Democracy!

Darkwater |W. E. B. Du Bois
The mudsill Sumner was too unpolished to think of clubbing the brains out of the gentleman Brooks.

Miss Ravenel's conversion from secession to loyalty |J. W. de Forest

The insurgent moral sense of a mudsill and shopkeeping North had at last found voice and vent.

Charles Sumner Centenary |Archibald H. Grimke