foothold

(redirected from a foothold)

a foothold in (something)

An initial, stable position from which one can progress in a particular industry or area. Likened to the place where one can place their foot when climbing something. Taking a role on a soap opera has helped many aspiring actors get a foothold in the entertainment business.
See also: foothold

foothold

An initial, stable position from which one can progress. Likened to the place where one can place their foot when climbing something. Taking a role on a soap opera has helped many aspiring actors get a foothold in the entertainment business.

get a foothold

To obtain an initial, stable position from which one can progress in a particular industry or area. Likened to the place where one can place their foot when climbing something. Taking a role on a soap opera has helped many aspiring actors get a foothold in the entertainment business.
See also: foothold, get

get a foothold in (something)

To obtain an initial, stable position from which one can progress in a particular industry or area. Likened to the place where one can place their foot when climbing something. Taking a role on a soap opera has helped many aspiring actors get a foothold in the entertainment business.
See also: foothold, get

have a foothold

To be in an initial, stable position from which one can progress in a particular industry or area. Likened to the place where one can place their foot when climbing something. Sure, I've appeared on a few TV shows, but I don't at all feel like I have a foothold in the entertainment business.
See also: foothold, have

have a foothold in (something)

To be in an initial, stable position from which one can progress in a particular industry or area. Likened to the place where one can place their foot when climbing something. Sure, I've appeared on a few TV shows, but I don't at all feel like I have a foothold in the entertainment business.
See also: foothold, have

help (someone) get a foothold in (something)

To help one obtain an initial, stable position from which one can progress in a particular industry or area. Taking a role on a soap opera has helped many aspiring actors get a foothold in the entertainment business. I bet my aunt could help you get a foothold in that company—she's the CEO's receptionist.
See also: foothold, get, help
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

*foothold (somewhere)

Fig. an initial position of support; a starting point. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; help someone get ~.) It's difficult to get a foothold in the education market when schools are laying off teachers. Max's father helped him get a foothold in the textile industry.

help someone get a foothold

(somewhere) Go to a foothold (somewhere).
See also: foothold, get, help
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in classic literature ?
They would have baffled an ordinary man; but the ape-man, accustomed to climbing, saw several places where he might gain a foothold, precarious possibly; but enough to give him reasonable assurance of escape if Numa would but betake himself to the far end of the gulch for a moment.
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I will not blame the course taken by the king, because, wishing to get a foothold in Italy, and having no friends there--seeing rather that every door was shut to him owing to the conduct of Charles--he was forced to accept those friendships which he could get, and he would have succeeded very quickly in his design if in other matters he had not made some mistakes.
And if the partition which she made with the Venetians in Lombardy was justified by the excuse that by it she got a foothold in Italy, this other partition merited blame, for it had not the excuse of that necessity.
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Sometimes the banks advanced so close upon the river that they were obliged to scramble up and down their rugged promontories, or to skirt along their bases where there was scarce a foothold. Their horses had dangerous falls in some of these passes.
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An examination of the wreckage showed that their greatest danger, now, lay in fire, for the flames were licking hungrily at the splintered wood of the wrecked cabin, and had already found a foothold upon the lower deck through a great jagged hole which the explosion had opened.
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The celebrated East India Company was all-powerful from 1756, when the English first gained a foothold on the spot where now stands the city of Madras, down to the time of the great Sepoy insurrection.
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