Fazzolet Faz"zo·let` noun [ Italian
fazzoletto .]
A handkerchief. [ R.]
percival.
Feaberry Fea"ber·ry noun [ Confer Prov. English
feabe ,
theabe ,
thape .]
(Botany) A gooseberry. [ Prov. Eng.]
Prior.
Feague Feague transitive verb [ Confer German
fegen to sweep, Icelandic
fægia to cleanse, polish, English
fair ,
fay , to fit,
fey to cleanse.]
To beat or whip; to drive. [ Obsolete]
Otway.
Feal Fe"al adjective [ Old French
feal ,
feel ,
feeil ,
fedeil , French
fidèle , Latin
fidelis faithful, from
fides faith. See
Faith .]
Faithful; loyal. [ Obsolete]
Wright.
Fealty Fe"al·ty noun [ Middle English
faute , Old French
fauté ,
fealté ,
feelé ,
feelteit , from Latin
fidelitas , from
fidelis faithful. See
Feal , and confer
Fidelity .]
1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord; the special oath by which this obligation was assumed; fidelity to a superior power, or to a government; loyality. It is no longer the practice to exact the performance of fealty, as a feudal obligation. Wharton (Law Dict. ). Tomlins. 2. Fidelity; constancy; faithfulness, as of a friend to a friend, or of a wife to her husband. He should maintain fealty to God.
I. Taylor. Makes wicked lightnings of her eyes, and saps
The fealty of our friends.
tennyson. Swore fealty to the new government.
Macaulay. »
Fealty is distinguished from
homage , which is an acknowledgment of tenure, while
fealty implies an oath. See
Homage .
Wharton. Syn. -- Homage; loyality; fidelity; constancy.
Fear Fear noun A variant of Fere , a mate, a companion. [ Obsolete]
Spenser.
Fear Fear noun [ Middle English
fer ,
feer ,
fere , Anglo-Saxon
f...r a coming suddenly upon, fear, danger; akin to Dutch
vaar , Old High German
fāra danger, German
gefahr , Icelandic
fār harm, mischief, plague, and to English
fare ,
peril . See
Fare .]
1. A painful emotion or passion excited by the expectation of evil, or the apprehension of impending danger; apprehension; anxiety; solicitude; alarm; dread. » The degrees of this passion, beginning with the most moderate, may be thus expressed, --
apprehension ,
fear ,
dread ,
fright ,
terror .
Fear is an uneasiness of the mind, upon the thought of future evil likely to befall us.
Locke. Where no hope is left, is left no fear .
Milton. 2. (Script.) (a) Apprehension of incurring, or solicitude to avoid, God's wrath; the trembling and awful reverence felt toward the Supreme Belng. (b) Respectful reverence for men of authority or worth. I will put my fear in their hearts.
Jer. xxxii. 40. I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Ps. xxxiv. 11. render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due . . . fear to whom fear .
Rom. xiii. 7. 3. That which causes, or which is the object of, apprehension or alarm; source or occasion of terror; danger; dreadfulness. There were they in great fear, where no fear was.
Ps. liii. 5. The fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise.
Shak. For fear ,
in apprehension lest. "For
fear you ne'er see chain nor money more."
Shak.
Fear Fear transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Feared ;
present participle & verbal noun Fearing .] [ Middle English
feren ,
faeren , to frighten, to be afraid, Anglo-Saxon
f...ran to terrify. See
Fear ,
noun ]
1. To feel a painful apprehension of; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotion of alarm or solicitude. I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Ps. xxiii. 4. With subordinate clause.
I greatly fear my money is not safe.
Shak. I almost fear to quit your hand.
D. Jerrold. 2. To have a reverential awe of; to solicitous to avoid the displeasure of. Leave them to God above; him serve and fear .
Milton. 3. To be anxious or solicitous for. [ R.]
The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children, therefore . . . I fear you.
Shak. 4. To suspect; to doubt. [ Obsolete]
Ay what else, fear you not her courage?
Shak. 5. To affright; to terrify; to drive away or prevent approach of by fear. [ Obsolete]
fear their people from doing evil.
Robynsin (More's utopia). Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.
Shak. Syn. -- To apprehend; dread; reverence; venerate.
Fear Fear intransitive verb To be in apprehension of evil; to be afraid; to feel anxiety on account of some expected evil. I exceedingly fear and quake.
Hebrew xii. 21.
Fearer Fear"er noun One who fars. Sir P. Sidney.
Fearful Fear"ful adjective 1. Full of fear, apprehension, or alarm; afraid; frightened. Anxious amidst all their success, and fearful amidat all their power.
Bp. Warburton. 2. inclined to fear; easily frightened; without courage; timid. What man is there that is fearful and faint- hearted?
Deut. xx. 8. 3. Indicating, or caused by, fear. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
Shak. 4. Inspiring fear or awe; exciting apprehension or terror; terrible; frightful; dreadful. This glorious and fearful name, The Lord thy God .
Deut. xxviii. 58. Death is a fearful thing.
Shak. In dreams they fearful precipices tread.
Dryden. Syn. -- Apprehensive; afraid; timid; timorous; horrible; distressing; shocking; frightful; dreadful; awful.
Fearfully Fear"ful·ly adverb In a fearful manner.
Fearfulness Fear"ful·ness noun The state of being fearful.
Fearless Fear"less adjective Free from fear. Syn. -- Bold; courageous; intrepid; valorous; valiant; brave; undaunted; dauntless; heroic. --
Fear"less*ly ,
adverb --
Fear"less*ness ,
noun
Fearnaught Fear"naught` noun 1. A fearless person. 2. A stout woolen cloth of great thickness; dreadnaught; also, a warm garment.
Fearsome Fear"some adjective 1. Frightful; causing fear. [ Scotch] "This
fearsome wind."
Sir W. Scott 2. Easily frightened; timid; timorous. "A silly
fearsome thing."
B. Taylor
Feasibility Fea"si·bil·ity noun ;
plural Feasibilities (-tiz). [ from
Feasible ]
The quality of being feasible; practicability; also, that which is feasible; as, before we adopt a plan, let us consider its feasibility . Men often swallow falsities for truths, dubiosities for certainties, possibilities for feasibilities .
Sir T. Browne.
Feasible Fea"si·ble adjective [ French
faisable , from
faire to make or do, from Latin
facere . See
Fact ,
Feat .]
1. Capable of being done, executed, or effected; practicable. Always existing before their eyes as a thing feasible in practice.
Burke. It was not feasible to gratify so many ambitions.
Beaconsfield. 2. Fit to be used or tailed, as land. [ R.]
R. Trumbull.
Feast Feast (fēst)
noun [ Middle English
feste festival, holiday, feast, Old French
feste festival, French
fête , from Latin
festum , plural
festa , from
festus joyful, festal; of uncertain origin. Confer
Fair ,
noun ,
Festal ,
Fête .]
1. A festival; a holiday; a solemn, or more commonly, a joyous, anniversary. The seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.
Ex. xiii. 6. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.
Luke ii. 41. » Ecclesiastical
feasts are called
immovable when they always occur on the same day of the year; otherwise they are called
movable .
2. A festive or joyous meal; a grand, ceremonious, or sumptuous entertainment, of which many guests partake; a banquet characterized by tempting variety and abundance of food. Enough is as good as a feast .
Old Proverb. Belshazzar the King made a great feast to a thousand of his lords.
Dan. v. 1. 3. That which is partaken of, or shared in, with delight; something highly agreeable; entertainment. The feast of reason, and the flow of soul.
Pope. Feast day ,
a holiday; a day set as a solemn commemorative festival. Syn. -- Entertainment; regale; banquet; treat; carousal; festivity; festival. --
Feast ,
Banquet ,
Festival ,
Carousal . A
feast sets before us viands superior in quantity, variety, and abundance; a
banquet is a luxurious feast; a
festival is the joyful celebration by good cheer of some agreeable event.
Carousal is unrestrained indulgence in frolic and drink.
Feast Feast intransitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Feasted ;
present participle & verbal noun Feasting .] [ Middle English
festen , confer Old French
fester to rest from work, French
fêter to celebrate a holiday. See
Feast ,
noun ]
1. To eat sumptuously; to dine or sup on rich provisions, particularly in large companies, and on public festivals. And his sons went and feasted in their houses.
Job. i. 4. 2. To be highly gratified or delighted. With my love's picture then my eye doth feast .
Shak.
Feast Feast transitive verb 1. To entertain with sumptuous provisions; to treat at the table bountifully; as, he was feasted by the king. Hayward. 2. To delight; to gratify; as, to feast the soul. Feast your ears with the music a while.
Shak.
Feaster Feast"er noun 1. One who fares deliciously. 2. One who entertains magnificently. Johnson.
Feastful Feast"ful adjective Festive; festal; joyful; sumptuous; luxurious. "
Feastful days."
Milton. --
Feast"ful*ly ,
adverb
Feat Feat noun [ Middle English
fet , Old French
fet ,
fait , French
fait ,
factum , from Latin
facere ,
factum , to make or do. Confer
Fact ,
Feasible ,
Do .]
1. An act; a deed; an exploit. The warlike feats I have done.
Shak. 2. A striking act of strength, skill, or cunning; a trick; as, feats of horsemanship, or of dexterity.
Feat Feat transitive verb To form; to fashion. [ Obsolete]
To the more mature,
A glass that feated them.
Shak.
Feat Feat adjective [
Compar. Feater ;
superl. Featest .] [ French
fait made, shaped, fit, past participle of
faire to make or do. See
Feat ,
noun ]
Dexterous in movements or service; skillful; neat; nice; pretty. [ Archaic]
Never master had a page . . . so feat .
Shak. And look how well my garments sit upon me --
Much feater than before.
Shak.
Feat-bodied Feat"-bod`ied adjective Having a feat or trim body. [ Obsolete]
Beau. & Fl.
Feateous Feat"e·ous adjective [ Confer Old French
faitis ,
faitice ,
fetis , well made, fine, Latin
facticius made by art.]
Dexterous; neat. [ Obsolete]
Johnson. --
Feat"e*ous*ly ,
adverb
Feather Feath"er (fĕ&thlig;"ẽr)
noun [ Middle English
fether , Anglo-Saxon
feðer ; akin to Dutch
veder , Old High German
fedara , German
feder , Icelandic
fjöðr , Swedish
fjäder , Danish
fjæder , Greek
ptero`n wing, feather,
pe`tesqai to fly, Sanskrit
pattra wing, feather,
pat to fly, and probably to Latin
penna feather, wing. √76, 248. Confer
Pen a feather.]
1. One of the peculiar dermal appendages, of several kinds, belonging to birds, as contour feathers, quills, and down. » An ordinary feather consists of the quill or hollow basal part of the stem; the shaft or rachis, forming the upper, solid part of the stem; the vanes or webs, implanted on the rachis and consisting of a series of slender laminæ or barbs, which usually bear barbules, which in turn usually bear barbicels and interlocking hooks by which they are fastened together. See
Down ,
Quill ,
Plumage .
2. Kind; nature; species; -- from the proverbial phrase, "Birds of a feather," that is, of the same species. [ R.]
I am not of that feather to shake off
My friend when he must need me.
Shak. 3. The fringe of long hair on the legs of the setter and some other dogs. 4. A tuft of peculiar, long, frizzly hair on a horse. 5. One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow. 6. (Mach. & Carp.) A longitudinal strip projecting as a fin from an object, to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sidwise but permit motion lengthwise; a spline. 7. A thin wedge driven between the two semicylindrical parts of a divided plug in a hole bored in a stone, to rend the stone. Knight. 8. The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water. »
Feather is used adjectively or in combination, meaning
composed of , or
resembling ,
a feather or feathers ; as,
feather fan,
feather -heeled,
feather duster.
Feather alum (Min.) ,
a hydrous sulphate of alumina, resulting from volcanic action, and from the decomposition of iron pyrites; -- called also halotrichite . Ure. --
Feather bed ,
a bed filled with feathers. --
Feather driver ,
one who prepares feathers by beating. --
Feather duster ,
a dusting brush of feathers. --
Feather flower ,
an artifical flower made of feathers, for ladies' headdresses, and other ornamental purposes. --
Feather grass (Botany) ,
a kind of grass ( Stipa pennata ) which has a long feathery awn rising from one of the chaffy scales which inclose the grain. --
Feather maker ,
one who makes plumes, etc., of feathers, real or artificial. --
Feather ore (Min.) ,
a sulphide of antimony and lead, sometimes found in capillary forms and like a cobweb, but also massive. It is a variety of Jamesonite. --
Feather shot , or
Feathered shot (Metal.) ,
copper granulated by pouring into cold water. Raymond. --
Feather spray (Nautical) ,
the spray thrown up, like pairs of feathers, by the cutwater of a fast-moving vessel. --
Feather star .
(Zoology) See Comatula . --
Feather weight .
(Racing) (a) Scrupulously exact weight, so that a feather would turn the scale, when a jockey is weighed or weighted. (b) The lightest weight that can be put on the back of a horse in racing. Youatt. (c) In wrestling, boxing, etc., a term applied to the lightest of the classes into which contestants are divided; -- in contradistinction to light weight , middle weight , and heavy weight . --
A feather in the cap an honour, trophy, or mark of distinction. [ Colloq.] --
To be in full feather ,
to be in full dress or in one's best clothes. [ Collog.] --
To be in high feather ,
to be in high spirits. [ Collog.] --
To cut a feather .
(a) (Nautical) To make the water foam in moving; in allusion to the ripple which a ship throws off from her bows. (b) To make one's self conspicuous. [ Colloq.] --
To show the white feather ,
to betray cowardice, -- a white feather in the tail of a cock being considered an indication that he is not of the true game breed.
Feather Feath"er transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Feathered ;
present participle & verbal noun Feathering. ]
1. To furnish with a feather or feathers, as an arrow or a cap. An eagle had the ill hap to be struck with an arrow feathered from her own wing.
L'Estrange. 2. To adorn, as with feathers; to fringe. A few birches and oaks still feathered the narrow ravines.
Sir W. Scott. 3. To render light as a feather; to give wings to. [ R.]
The Polonian story perhaps may feather some tedious hours.
Loveday. 4. To enrich; to exalt; to benefit. They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself.
Bacon. Dryden. 5. To tread, as a cock. Dryden. To feather one's nest ,
to provide for one's self especially from property belonging to another, confided to one's care; -- an expression taken from the practice of birds which collect feathers for the lining of their nests. --
To feather an oar (Naut) ,
to turn it when it leaves the water so that the blade will be horizontal and offer the least resistance to air while reaching for another stroke. --
To tar and feather a person ,
to smear him with tar and cover him with feathers, as a punishment or an indignity.
Feather Feath"er intransitive verb 1. To grow or form feathers; to become feathered; -- often with out ; as, the birds are feathering out. 2. To curdle when poured into another liquid, and float about in little flakes or "feathers;" as, the cream feathers . [ Colloq.]
3. To turn to a horizontal plane; -- said of oars. The feathering oar returns the gleam.
Tickell. Stopping his sculls in the air to feather accurately.
Macmillan's Mag. 4. To have the appearance of a feather or of feathers; to be or to appear in feathery form. A clump of ancient cedars feathering in evergreen beauty down to the ground.
Warren. The ripple feathering from her bows.
Tennyson.
Feather-brained Feath"er-brained` adjective Giddy; frivolous; feather-headed. [ Colloq.]
Feather-edge Feath"er-edge` noun 1. (Zoology) The thin, new growth around the edge of a shell, of an oyster. 2. Any thin, as on a board or a razor.
Feather-edged Feath"er-edged` adjective Having a feather-edge; also, having one edge thinner than the other, as a board; -- in the United States, said only of stuff one edge of which is made as thin as practicable.
Feather-few Feath"er-few noun (Botany) Feverfew.
Feather-foil Feath"er-foil` noun [
Feather +
foil a leaf.]
(Botany) An aquatic plant ( Hottonia palustris ), having finely divided leaves.
Feather-head Feath"er-head` noun A frivolous or featherbrained person. [ Colloq.]
H. James.
Feather-headed Feath"er-head`ed adjective Giddy; frivolous; foolish. [ Colloq.]
G. Eliot.
Feather-heeled Feath"er-heeled` adjective Light- heeled; gay; frisky; frolicsome. [ Colloq.]
Feather-pated Feath"er-pat"ed adjective Feather- headed; frivolous. [ Colloq.]
Sir W. Scott.
Feather-veined Feath"er-veined` adjective (Botany) Having the veins (of a leaf) diverging from the two sides of a midrib.
Featherbone Feath"er·bone` noun A substitute for whalebone, made from the quills of geese and turkeys.
Feathered Feath"ered adjective 1. Clothed, covered, or fitted with (or as with) feathers or wings; as, a feathered animal; a feathered arrow. Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury.
Shak. Nonsense feathered with soft and delicate phrases and pointed with pathetic accent.
Dr. J. Scott. 2. Furnished with anything featherlike; ornamented; fringed; as, land feathered with trees. 3. (Zoology) Having a fringe of feathers, as the legs of certian birds; or of hairs, as the legs of a setter dog. 4. (Her.) Having feathers; -- said of an arrow, when the feathers are of a tincture different from that of the shaft.
Featheriness Feath"er·i·ness noun The state or condition of being feathery.
Feathering Feath"er·ing noun 1. (Architecture) Same as Foliation . 2. The act of turning the blade of the oar, as it rises from the water in rowing, from a vertical to a horizontal position. See To feather an oar , under Feather , transitive verb 3. A covering of feathers. Feathering float (Nautical) ,
the float or paddle of a feathering wheel. --
Feathering screw (Nautical) ,
a screw propeller, of which the blades may be turned so as to move edgewise through the water when the vessel is moving under sail alone. --
Feathering wheel (Nautical) ,
a paddle wheel whose floats turn automatically so as to dip about perpendicularly into the water and leave in it the same way, avoiding beating on the water in the descent and lifting water in the ascent.
Featherless Feath"er·less adjective Destitute of feathers.
Featherly Feath"er·ly adjective Like feathers. [ Obsolete]
Sir T. Browne.
Featherstitch Feath"er·stitch` noun A kind of embroidery stitch producing a branching zigzag line.
Feathery Feath"er·y adjective Pertaining to, or resembling, feathers; covered with, or as with, feathers; as, feathery spray or snow. Milton. Ye feathery people of mid air.
Barry Cornwall.
Featly Feat"ly adverb [ From
Feat ,
adjective ]
Neatly; dexterously; nimbly. [ Archaic]
Foot featly here and there.
Shak.