Sunday, August 5, 2018

idioms - Meaning of 足のつかない?



I wasn't able to find any matches through dictionaries for 足のつかない or 足がつかない.


Here is the sentence:



消えても足のつかない人間をさらっては上の集団に引き渡すらしい



The context is thugs kidnapping people for money.


I don't understand 足のつかない. My impression is that it means 'not having one's feet on the ground'. But I think there's probably a more metaphorical meaning for it in this sentence.


Thank you



Answer



In this sentence, 足のつかない人間 means "people who you would not pay attention to if they disappeared." So they're probably criminals, the homeless or someone living out of the society. Though it depends on context, I think 80 percent of the expression “足のつかない人間” have this connotation.



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