Fisticuff noun A cuff or blow with the fist or hand ; ( plural ) a fight with the fists; boxing. Swift.

Fistinut noun [ Confer Fr. fistinq , fistuq . See Pistachio .] A pistachio nut. [ Obsolete] Johnson.

Fistuca noun [ Latin ] An instrument used by the ancients in driving piles.

Fistula noun ; plural Fistulæ . [ Latin ]
1. A reed; a pipe.

2. A pipe for convejing water. [ Obsolete] Knight.

3. (Medicine) A permanent abnormal opening into the soft parts with a constant discharge; a deep, narrow, chronic abscess; an abnormal opening between an internal cavity and another cavity or the surface; as, a salivary fistula ; an anal fistula ; a recto-vaginal fistula .

Incomplete fistula (Medicine) , a fistula open at one end only.

Fistular adjective [ Latin fistularis : confer French fistulaire .] Hollow and cylindrical, like a pipe or reed. Johnson.

Fistularia noun [ New Latin , from Latin fistula pipe.] (Zoology) A genus of fishes, having the head prolonged into a tube, with the mouth at the extremity.

Fistularioid adjective [ Fistularia + -oid .] (Zoology) Like or pertaining to the genus Fistularia.

Fistulate transitive verb & i. [ Confer Latin fistulatus furnished with pipes.] To make hollow or become hollow like a fistula, or pipe. [ Obsolete] "A fistulated ulcer." Fuller.

Fistule noun A fistula.

Fistuliform adjective [ Fistula + -form .] Of a fistular form; tubular; pipe-shaped.

Stalactite often occurs fistuliform .

W. Philips.

Fistulose adjective [ Latin fistulosus .] Formed like a fistula; hollow; reedlike. Craig.

Fistulous adjective [ Confer French fistuleux .]
1. Having the form or nature of a fistula; as, a fistulous ulcer.

2. Hollow, like a pipe or reed; fistulose. Lindley.

Fit imperfect & past participle of Fight . [ Obsolete or Colloq.]

Fit noun [ Anglo-Saxon fitt a song.] In Old English, a song; a strain; a canto or portion of a ballad; a passus. [ Written also fitte , fytte , etc.]

To play some pleasant fit .

Spenser.

Fit adjective [ Compar. Fitter ; superl. Fittest .] [ Middle English fit , fyt ; confer English feat neat, elegant, well made, or icel. fitja to web, knit, OD. vitten to suit, square, Goth. fētjan to adorn. √77.]
1. Adapted to an end, object, or design; suitable by nature or by art; suited by character, qualitties, circumstances, education, etc.; qualified; competent; worthy.

That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in.

Shak.

Fit audience find, though few.

Milton.

2. Prepared; ready. [ Obsolete]

So fit to shoot, she singled forth among
her foes who first her quarry's strength should feel.

Fairfax.

3. Conformed to a standart of duty, properiety, or taste; convenient; meet; becoming; proper.

Is it fit to say a king, Thou art wicked?

Job xxxiv. 18.

Syn. -- Suitable; proper; appropriate; meet; becoming; expedient; congruous; correspondent; apposite; apt; adapted; prepared; qualified; competent; adequate.

Fit transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Fitted ; present participle & verbal noun Fitting .]
1. To make fit or suitable; to adapt to the purpose intended; to qualify; to put into a condition of readiness or preparation.

The time is fitted for the duty.

Burke.

The very situation for which he was peculiarly fitted by nature.

Macaulay.

2. To bring to a required form and size; to shape aright; to adapt to a model; to adjust; -- said especially of the work of a carpenter, machinist, tailor, etc.

The carpenter . . . marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes.

Is. xliv. 13.

3. To supply with something that is suitable or fit, or that is shaped and adjusted to the use required.

No milliner can so fit his customers with gloves.

Shak.

4. To be suitable to; to answer the requirements of; to be correctly shaped and adjusted to; as, if the coat fits you, put it on.

That's a bountiful answer that fits all questions.

Shak.

That time best fits the work.

Shak.

To fit out , to supply with necessaries or means; to furnish; to equip; as, to fit out a privateer. -- To fit up , to furnish with things suitable; to make proper for the reception or use of any person; to prepare; as, to fit up a room for a guest.

Fit intransitive verb
1. To be proper or becoming.

Nor fits it to prolong the feast.

Pope.

2. To be adjusted to a particular shape or size; to suit; to be adapted; as, his coat fits very well.

Fit noun
1. The quality of being fit; adjustment; adaptedness; as of dress to the person of the wearer.

2. (Machinery) (a) The coincidence of parts that come in contact. (b) The part of an object upon which anything fits tightly.

Fit rod (Shipbuilding) , a gauge rod used to try the depth of a bolt hole in order to determine the length of the bolt required. Knight.

Fit noun [ Anglo-Saxon fit strife, fight; of uncertain origin. √ 77.]
1. A stroke or blow. [ Obsolete or R.]

Curse on that cross, quoth then the Sarazin,
That keeps thy body from the bitter fit .

Spenser.

2. A sudden and violent attack of a disorder; a stroke of disease, as of epilepsy or apoplexy, which produces convulsions or unconsciousness; a convulsion; a paroxysm; hence, a period of exacerbation of a disease; in general, an attack of disease; as, a fit of sickness.

And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake.

Shak.

3. A mood of any kind which masters or possesses one for a time; a temporary, absorbing affection; a paroxysm; as, a fit of melancholy, of passion, or of laughter.

All fits of pleasure we balanced by an equal degree of pain.

Swift.

The English, however, were on this subject prone to fits of jealously.

Macaulay.

4. A passing humor; a caprice; a sudden and unusual effort, activity, or motion, followed by relaxation or inaction; an impulsive and irregular action.

The fits of the season.

Shak.

5. A darting point; a sudden emission. [ R.]

A tongue of light, a fit of flame.

Coleridge.

By fits , By fits and starts , by intervals of action and repose; impulsively and irregularly; intermittently.

Fitch noun ; plural Fitches . [ See Vetch .]
1. (Botany) A vetch. [ Obsolete]

2. plural (Botany) A word found in the Authorized Version of the Bible, representing different Hebrew originals. In Isaiah xxviii. 25, 27, it means the black aromatic seeds of Nigella sativa , still used as a flavoring in the East. In Ezekiel iv. 9, the Revised Version now reads spelt .

Fitch noun [ Contr. of fitched.] (Zoology) The European polecat; also, its fur.

Fitché adjective [ Confer French fiché , lit. past participle of ficher to fasten, Old French fichier to pierce. Confer 1st Fish .] (Her.) Sharpened to a point; pointed.

Cross fitché , a cross having the lower arm pointed.

Fitched adjective (her.) Fitché. [ Also fiched .]

Fitchet, Fitchew noun [ Confer Old French fisseau , fissel , OD. fisse , visse , vitsche , Dutch vies nasty, loathsome, English fizz .] (Zoology) The European polecat ( Putorius fœtidus ). See Polecat .

Fitchy adjective Having fitches or vetches.

Fitchy adjective [ See Fitché .] (Her.) Fitché.

Fitful adjective [ From 7th Fit .] Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable.

After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well.

Shak.

-- Fit"ful*ly , adverb -- Fit"ful*ness , noun

The victorious trumpet peal
Dies fitfully away .

Macaulay.

Fithel, Fithul noun [ Middle English See Fiddle .] A fiddle. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Fitly adverb In a fit manner; suitably; properly; conveniently; as, a maxim fitly applied.

Fitment noun The act of fitting; that which is proper or becoming; equipment. [ Obsolete] Shak.

Fitness noun The state or quality of being fit; as, the fitness of measures or laws; a person's fitness for office.

Fitt noun See 2d Fit .

Fittable adjective Suitable; fit. [ Obsolete] Sherwood.

Fittedness noun The state or quality of being fitted; adaptation. [ Obsolete] Dr. H. More.

Fitter noun
1. One who fits or makes to fit; esp.: (a) One who tries on, and adjusts, articles of dress. (b) One who fits or adjusts the different parts of machinery to each other.

2. A coal broker who conducts the sales between the owner of a coal pit and the shipper. [ Eng.] Simmonds.

Fitter noun A little piece; a flitter; a flinder. [ Obsolete]

Where's the Frenchman? Alas, he's all fitters .

Beau. & Fl.

Fitting noun Anything used in fitting up ; especially ( plural ), necessary fixtures or apparatus; as, the fittings of a church or study; gas fittings .

Fitting adjective Fit; appropriate; suitable; proper. -- Fit"ting*ly , adverb -- Fit"ting*ness , noun Jer. Taylor.

Fitweed noun (Botany) A plant ( Eryngium fœtidum ) supposed to be a remedy for fits.

Fitz noun [ Old French fils , filz , fiz , son, French fils , Latin filius . See Filial .] A son; -- used in compound names, to indicate paternity, esp. of the illegitimate sons of kings and princes of the blood; as, Fitz roy, the son of the king; Fitz clarence, the son of the duke of Clarence.

Five adjective [ Middle English fif , five , Anglo-Saxon fīf , fīfe ; akin to Dutch vijf , Old Saxon fīf , Old High German finf , funf , German fünf , Icelandic fimm , Swedish & Swedish Danish fem , Goth. fimf , Lithuanian penki , W. pump , OIr. cóic , Latin quinque , Greek ..., Æol. ..., Sanskrit pa...can . √303. Confer Fifth , Cinque , Pentagon , Punch the drink, Quinary .] Four and one added; one more than four.

Five nations (Ethnol.) , a confederacy of the Huron-Iroquois Indians, consisting of five tribes: Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Oneidas, and Senecas. They inhabited the region which is now the State of new York.

Five (fīv) noun
1. The number next greater than four, and less than six; five units or objects.

Five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Matt. xxv. 2.

2. A symbol representing this number, as 5, or V.

Five-finger noun
1. (Botany) See Cinquefoil .

2. (Zoology) A starfish with five rays, esp. Asterias rubens .

Five-leaf noun Cinquefoil; five-finger.

Five-leafed, Five-leaved adjective (Botany) Having five leaflets, as the Virginia creeper.

Five-twenties noun plural Five- twenty bonds of the United States (bearing six per cent interest), issued in 1862, '64, and '65, redeemable after five and payable in twenty years.

Fivefold adjective & adverb In fives; consisting of five in one; five repeated; quintuple.

Fiveling noun (Min.) A compound or twin crystal consisting of five individuals.

Fives (fīvz) noun plural A kind of play with a ball against a wall, resembling tennis; -- so named because three fives , or fifteen , are counted to the game. Smart.

Fives court , a place for playing fives.

Fives noun [ See Vives .] A disease of the glands under the ear in horses; the vives. Shak.