The Collaborative International Dictionary
All fours \All` fours"\ [formerly, All` four".] All four legs of a quadruped; or the two legs and two arms of a person.
To be on all fours, To go on all fours, or To run on all
fours (Fig.), to be on the same footing; to correspond
(with) exactly; to be alike in all the circumstances to be
considered. ``This example is on all fours with the
other.'' ``No simile can go on all fours.''
--Macaulay.
Usage examples of "to go on all fours".
It was necessary to go on all fours to win to the top of the slope, emerge into the Crystal Forest.
And they shut her up in a cavea cave with a low ceiling, so she can't stand up, has to go on all fours.
Although he would have to go on all fours for the first ten yards or so, he was reasonably certain he could fight his way back to the second lateral gallery where the men had dispersed.
It was not easy for a naturally bipedal species to go on all fours, and Tanni saw Akela walking erect when he thought she wasn't looking.
This combination made it possible--even convenient--for him to go on all fours like a gorilla.
Polly found it easier to go on all fours, grabbing at tufts and saplings to steady herself.
In the light of the fire it looked as if it were formed of rough stones, made either to stand upright, as it was presently doing, or to go on all fours.
She could not get up, so she tried to go on all fours, the long way up the slope to the houses under the rimrock.