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




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.




The idiomatic expression refers to not having any leads. See the explanation
for 足がつく [here](http://www.ymknu200719.com/kotowaza/koto-a-0045.html).

So the phrase in your example is actually referring to a person who has
disappeared without a trace.

