Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
F
F — FAIR-HAND
F, the sixth letter of the English Alphabet., is a labial articulation, formed by placing the upper teeth on the under lip, and accompanied with an emission of breath. Its kindred letter is v, which is chiefly distinguished from f by being more vocal, or accompanied with more sound, as may be perceived by pronouncing ef, ev. This letter may be derived from the Oriental vau. The Latins received the letter from the Eolians in Greece, who wrote it in the form of a double g, F,; whence it has been called most absurdly digamma. It corresponds in power to the Greek phi, and its proper name is ef.
As a Latin numeral, it signifies 40, and with a dash over the top, forty thousand.
In the civil law, two of these letters together ff, signify the pandects.
In English criminal law, this letter is branded on felons, when admitted to the benefit of clergy.
In medical prescriptions, F stands for fiat, let it be made; F.S.A. fiat secundum artem.
F stands also for Fellow; F.R.S. Fellow of the Royal Society.
F or fa, in music, is the fourth note rising in this order in the gamut, ut, re, mi, fa. It denotes also one of the Greek keys in music, destined for the base.
F in English has one uniform sound, as in father, after.
FABACEOUS, a. [Low L., a bean.] Having the nature of a bean; like a bean. [Little used.]
FABIAN, a. Delaying; dilatory; avoiding battle, in imitation of Q. Fabius Maximus, a Roman general who conducted military operations against Hannibal, by declining to risk a battle in the open field, but harassing the enemy by marches, countermarches and ambuscades.
FABLE, n. [L., Gr. The radical sense is that which is spoken or told.]
1. A feigned story or tale, intended to instruct or amuse; a fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept.
Jothams fable of the trees is the oldest extant, and as beautiful as any made since.
2. Fiction in general; as, the story is all a fable.
3. An idle story; vicious or vulgar fictions.
But refuse profane and old wives fables. 1 Timothy 4:7.
4. The plot, or connected series of events, in an epic or dramatic poem.
The moral is the first business of the poet; this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral.
5. Falsehood; a softer term for a lie.
FABLE, v.i.
1. To feign; to write fiction.
Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell.
2. To tell falsehoods; as, he fables not.
FABLE, v.t. To feign; to invent; to devise and speak of, as true or real.
The hell thou fablest.
FABLED, pp.
1. Feigned; invented, as stories.
2. a. Told or celebrated in fables.
Hail, fabled grotto.
FABLER, n. A writer of fables or fictions; a dealer in feigned stories.
FABLING, ppr. Feigning; devising, as stories; writing or uttering false stories.
FABRIC, n. [L., a frame, a workman.]
1. The structure of any thing; the manner in which the parts of a thing are untied by art and labor; workmanship; texture. This is cloth of a beautiful fabric.
2. The frame or structure of a building; construction. More generally, the building itself; an edifice; a house; a temple; a church; a bridge, etc. The word is usually applied to a large building.
3. Any system composed of connected parts; as the fabric of the universe.
4. Cloth manufactured.
Silks and other fine fabrics of the east.
FABRIC, v.t. To frame; to build; to construct. [Little used.]
FABRICATE, v.t. [L., to frame, supra.]
1. To frame; to build; to construct; to form a whole by connecting its parts; as, to fabricate a bridge or ship.
2. To form by art and labor; to manufacture; as, to fabricate woolens.
3. To invent and form; to forge; to devise falsely; as, to fabricate a lie or story.
Our books were not fabricated with an accommodation to prevailing usages.
4. To coin; as, to fabricate money. [Unusual.]
FABRICATED, pp. Framed; constructed; built; manufactured; invented; devised falsely; forged.
FABRICATING, ppr. Framing; constructing; manufacturing; devising falsely; forging.
FABRICATION, n.
1. The act of framing or constructing construction; as the fabrication of a bridge or of a church.
2. The act of manufacturing.
3. The act of devising falsely; forgery.
4. That which is fabricated; a falsehood. The story is doubtless a fabrication.
FABRICATOR, n. One that constructs or makes.
FABRILE, a. [L.] Pertaining to handicrafts. [Not used.]
FABULIST, n. [from fable.] The inventor or writer of fables.
FABULIZE, v.t. To invent, compose or relate fables.
FABULOSITY, n. Fabulousness; fullness of fables. [Little used.]
FABULOUS, a.
1. Feigned, as a story; devised; fictitious; as a fabulous story; a fabulous description.
2. Related in fable; described or celebrated in fables; invented; not real; as a fabulous hero; the fabulous exploits of Hercules.
3. The fabulous age of Greece and Rome, was the early age of those countries, the accounts of which are mostly fabulous, or in which the fabulous achievements of their heroes were performed; called also the heroic age.
FABULOUSLY, adv. In a fable or fiction; in a fabulous manner.
FABULOUSNESS, n. The quality of being fabulous or feigned.
FACADE, n. Front.
FACE, n. [L., to make.]
1. In a general sense, the surface of a thing, or the side which presents itself to the view of a spectator; as the face of the earth; the face of the waters.
2. A part of the surface of a thing; or the plane surface of a solid. Thus, a cube or die has six faces an octahedron has eight faces.
3. The surface of the fore part of an animals head, particularly of the human head; the visage.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Genesis 3:19.
Joseph bowed himself with his face to the earth. Genesis 48:12.
4. Countenance; cast of features; look; air of the face.
We set the best face on it we could.
5. The front of a thing; the forepart; the flat surface that presents itself first to view; as the face of a house. Ezekiel 41:14.
6. Visible state; appearance.
This would produce a new face of things in Europe.
7. Appearance; look.
Nor heaven, nor sea, their former face retained.
His dialogue has the face of probability.
8. State of confrontation. The witnesses were presented face to face.
9. Confidence; boldness; impudence; a bold front.
He has the face to charge others with false citations.
10. Presence; sight; as in the phrases, before the face, in the face, to the face, from the face.
11. The person.
I had not thought to see thy face. Genesis 48:11.
12. In scripture, face is used for anger or favor.
Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne. Revelation 6:16.
Make thy face to shine on thy servant. Psalm 31:16.
How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Psalm 13:1.
Hence, to seek the face, that is, to pray to, to seek the favor of.
To set the face against, is to oppose.
To accept ones face, is to show him favor or grant his request. So, to entreat the face, is to ask favor; but these phrases are nearly obsolete.
13. A distorted form of the face; as in the phrase, to make faces, or to make wry faces.
Face to face
1. When both parties are present; as, to have accusers face to face. Acts 25:16.
2. Nakedly; without the interposition of any other body.
Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12.
FACE, v.t.
1. To meet in front; to oppose with firmness; to resist, or to meet for the purpose of stopping or opposing; as, to face an enemy in the field of battle.
I’ll face this tempest, and deserve the name of king.
2. To stand opposite to; to stand with the face or front towards. The colleges in New Haven face the public square.
3. To cover with additional superficies; to cover in front; as a fortification faced with marble; to face a garment with silk.
To face down, to oppose boldly or impudently.
FACE, v.i.
1. To carry a false appearance; to play the hypocrite.
To lie, to face, to forge.
2. To turn the face; as, to face to the right or left.
FACECLOTH, n. [face and cloth.] A cloth laid over the face of a corpse.
FACED, pp. Covered in front. In composition, denoting the kind of face; as full-faced.
FACELESS, a. Without a face.
FACEPAINTER, n. A painter of portraits; one who draws the likeness of the face.
FACEPAINTING, n. The act or art of painting portraits.
FACET, n.
A little face; a small surface; as the facets of a diamond.
FACETE, a. [L. facetus.] Gay; cheerful. [Not in use.]
FACETENESS, n. Wit; pleasant representation. [Not used.]
FACETIOUS, a. [L. facetus; facetia, or plu.]
1. Merry; sportive; jocular; sprightly with wit and good humor; as a facetious companion.
2. Witty; full of pleasantry playful; exciting laughter; as a facetious story; a facetious reply.
FACETIOUSLY, adv. Merrily; gaily; wittily; with pleasantry.
FACETIOUSNESS, n. Sportive humor; pleasantry; the quality of exciting laughter or good humor.
FACIAL, a. [L. facies, face.] Pertaining to the face; as the facial artery, vein or nerve.
Facial angle, in anatomy, is the angle contained by a line drawn horizontally from the middle of the external entrance of the ear to the edge of the nostrils, and another from this latter point to the superciliary ridge of the frontal bone; serving to measure the elevation of the forehead.
FACILE, a. [L. facilis, from facio, to make.]
1. Properly, easy to be done or performed; easy; not difficult; performable or attainable with little labor.
Order - will render the work facile and delightful.
2. Easy to be surmounted or removed; easily conquerable.
The facile gates of hell too slightly barred.
3. Easy of access or converse; mild; courteous; not haughty, austere or distant.
I mean she should be courteous, facile, sweet.
4. Pliant; flexible; easily persuaded to good or bad; yielding; ductile to a fault.
Since Adam, and his facile consort Eve,
Lost Paradise, deceived by me.
FACILELY, adv. Easily. [Little used.]
FACILENESS, n. Easiness to be persuaded.
FACILITATE, v.t. [L. facilitas, from facilis, easy.]
To make easy or less difficult; to free from difficulty or impediment, or to diminish it; to lessen the labor of. Machinery facilitates manual labor and operations. Pioneers may facilitate the march of an army.
FACILITATED, pp. Made easy or easier.
FACILITATING, ppr. Rendering easy or easier.
FACILITATION, n. The act of making easy.
FACILITY, n. [L. facilitas, from facilis, easy.]
1. Easiness to be performed; freedom from difficulty; ease. He performed the work or operation with great facility.
Though facility and hope of success might invite some other choice.
2. Ease of performance; readiness proceeding from skill or use; dexterity. Practice gives a wonderful facility in executing works of art.
3. Pliancy; ductility; easiness to be persuaded; readiness of compliance, usually in a bad sense, implying a disposition to yield to solicitations to evil.
It is a great error to take facility for good nature: tenderness without discretion, is no better than a more pardonable folly.
4. Easiness of access; complaisance; condescension; affability.
He offers himself to the visits of a friend with facility.
FACILITIES, n. plu. The means by which the performance of anything is rendered easy; convenient opportunities or advantages.
FACING, ppr. [from face.]
1. Fronting; having the face towards; opposite.
2. Covering the fore part.
3. Turning the face.
FACING, n. A covering in front for ornament or defense; as the facing of a fortification or of a garment.
FACINOROUS, a. [L. facinus.] Atrociously wicked. [Little used.]
FACINOROUSNESS, n. Extreme or astrocious wickedness.
FACSIMILE, n. [L. facio, to make, and similis, like. See Simile.]
An exact copy or likeness, as of handwriting.
FACT, n. [L. factum, from facio, to make or do.]
1. Any thing done, or that comes to pass; an act; a deed; an effect produced or achieved; an event. Witnesses are introduced into court to prove a fact. Facts are stubborn things. To deny a fact knowingly is to lie.
2. Reality; truth; as, in fact. So we say, indeed.
FACTION, n. [L. factio, from facio, to make or do.]
1. A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in opposition to the prince, government or state; usually applied to a minority, but it may be applied to a majority. sometimes a state is divided into factions nearly equal. Rome was almost always disturbed by factions. Republics are proverbial for factions, and factions in monarchies have often effected revolutions.
A feeble government produces more factions than an oppressive one.
By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.
2. Tumult; discord; dissension.
FACTIONARY, n. A party man; one of a faction. [Little used.]
FACTIONER, n. One of a faction. [Not in use.]
FACTIONIST, n. One who promotes faction.
FACTIOUS, a. [L. factiosus.]
1. Given to faction; addicted to form parties and raise dissensions, in opposition to government; turbulent; prone to clamor against public measures of men. No state is free from factious citizens.
2. Pertaining to faction; proceeding from faction; as factious tumults; factious quarrels.
FACTIOUSLY, adv. In a factious manner; by means of faction; in a turbulent or disorderly manner.
FACTIOUSNESS, n. Inclination to form parties in opposition to the government, or to the public interest; disposition to clamor and raise opposition; clamorousness for a party.
FACTITIOUS, a. [L. factitius, from facio.]
Made by art, in distinction from what is produced by nature; artificial; as factitious cinnabar; factitious stones; factitious air.
FACTIVE, a. Making; having power to make. [Not used.]
FACTOR, n. [L. factor; facio.]
1. In commerce, an agent employed by merchants, residing in other places, to buy and sell, and to negotiate bills of exchange, or to transact other business on their account.
2. an agent; a substitute.
3. In arithmetic, the multiplier and multiplicand, from the multiplication of which proceeds the product.
FACTORAGE, n. the allowance given to a factor by his employer, as a compensation for his services; called also a commission. This is sometimes a certain sum or rate by the cask or package; more generally it is a certain rate per cent. Of the value of the goods, purchased or sold.
FACTORSHIP, n. a factory; or the business of a factor.
FACTORY, n.
1. A house or place where factors reside, to transact business for their employers. The English merchants have factories in the East Indies, Turkey, Portugal, Hamburg, etc.
2. The body of factors in any place; as a chaplain to a British factory.
3. Contracted from manufactory, a building or collection of buildings, appropriated to the manufacture of goods; the place where workmen are employed in fabricating goods, wares or utensils.
FACTOTUM, n. [L. do every thing.] a servant employed to do all kinds of work.
FACTURE, n. The art or manner of making.
FACULTY, n. [L. facultas, from facio, to make.]
1. That power of the mind or intellect which enables it to receive, revive or modify perceptions; as the faculty of seeing, of hearing, of imagining, of remembering, etc.: or in general, the faculties may be called the powers or capacities of the mind.
2. The power of doing any thing; ability. There is no faculty or power in creatures, which can rightly perform its functions, without the perpetual aid of the Supreme Being.
3. The power of performing any action, natural, vital or animal.
The vital faculty is that by which life is preserved.
4. Facility of performance; the peculiar skill derived from practice, or practice aided by nature; habitual skill or ability; dexterity; adroitness; knack. One man has a remarkable faculty of telling a story; another, of inventing excuses for misconduct; a third, of reasoning; a fourth, of preaching.
5. Personal quality; disposition or habit, good or ill.
6. Power; authority.
Hath borne his faculties so meek. [Hardly legitimate.]
7. Mechanical power; as the faculty of the wedge. [Not used, nor legitimate.]
8. Natural virtue; efficacy; as the faculty of simples. [Not used, nor legitimate.]
9. Privilege; a right or power granted to a person by favor or indulgence, to do what by law he may not do; as the faculty of marrying without the bans being first published, or of ordaining a deacon under age. The archbishop of Canterbury has a court of faculties, for granting such privileges or dispensations.
10. In colleges, the masters and professors of the several sciences.
One of the members or departments of a university. In most universities there are four faculties; of art, including humanity and philosophy; of theology; of medicine; and of law.
In America, the faculty of a college or university consists of the president, professors and tutors.
The faculty of advocates, in Scotland, is a respectable body of lawyers who plead in all causes before the Courts of Session, Justiciary and Exchequer.
FACUND, a. [L. facundus, supposed to be from the root of for, fari, to speak. If so the original word was faco, or facor.]
Eloquent. [Little used.]
FACUNDITY, n. [L. facunditas.] Eloquence; readiness of speech.
FADDLE, v.i. To trifle; to toy; to play. [A low word.]
FADE, a. Weak; slight; faint. [Not in use.]
FADE, v.i.
1. To lose color; to tend from a stronger or brighter color to a more faint shade of the same color, or to lose a color entirely. A green leaf fades and becomes less green or yellow. Those colors are deemed the best, which are least apt to fade.
2. To wither, as a plant; to decay.
Ye shall be as an oak, whose leaf fadeth. Isaiah 1:30.
3. To lose strength gradually; to vanish.
When the memory is weak, ideas in the mind quickly fade.
4. To lose luster; to grow dim.
The stars shall fade away.
5. To decay; to perish gradually.
We all do fade as a leaf. Isaiah 64:6.
An inheritance that fadeth not away. 1 Peter 1:4.
6. To decay; to decline; to become poor and miserable.
The rich man shall fade away in his ways. James 1:11.
7. To lose strength, health or vigor; to decline; to grow weaker.
8. To disappear gradually; to vanish.
FADE, v.t. To cause to wither; to wear away; to deprive of freshness or vigor.
No winter could his laurels fade.
This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered.
FADED, pp. Become less vivid, as color; withered; decayed; vanished.
FADGE, v.i. [L. pango, pegi, pepegi, figo; Gr.]
1. To suit; to fit; to come close, as the parts of things united. Hence, to have one part consistent with another.
2. To agree; to live in amity.
3. To succeed; to hit.
[This word is now vulgar, and improper in elegant writing.]
FADING, ppr. [See Fade.]
1. Losing color; becoming less vivid; decaying; declining; withering.
2. a. Subject to decay; liable to lose freshness and vigor; liable to perish; not durable; transient; as a fading flower.
FADING, n. Decay; loss of color, freshness or vigor.
FADINGNESS, n. Decay; liableness to decay.
FADY, a. Wearing away; losing color or strength.
FAECAL, a. [See Fecal.]
FAECES, n. [L.] Excrement; also, settlings; sediment after infusion or distillation.
FAFFEL, v.i. To stammer. [Not in use.]
FAG, v.t. To beat. [Not in use.]
FAG, n. A slave; one who works hard. [Not in use.]
FAG, v.i. [Heb. to fail, to languish.]
To become weary; to fail in strength; to be faint with weariness.
The Italian began to fag.
[A vulgar word.]
FAG, n. A knot in cloth. [Not in use.]
FAGEND, n. [fag and end. See Fag, v.i. supra.]
1. The end of a web of cloth, generally of coarser materials.
2. The refuse or meaner part of any thing.
3. Among seamen, the untwisted end of a rope; hence, to fag out, is to become untwisted and loose.
We observe that the use of this word among seamen leads to the true sense of the verb, as well as the noun. The sense is, to open by receding, or to yield and become lax, and hence weak.
FAGOT, n. [Gr. See Fadge. The sense is a bundle or collection, like pack.]
1. A bundle of sticks, twigs or small branches of trees, used for fuel, or for raising batteries, filling ditches, and other purposes in fortification. The French use fascine, from the L. fascis, a bundle; a term now adopted in English.
2. A person hired to appear at musters in a company not full and hide the deficiency.
FAGOT, v.t. To tie together; to bind in a bundle; to collect promiscuously.
FAHLERZ, n. Gray copper, or gray copper ore, called by Jameson tetrahedral copper pyrite. This mineral is easily broken, and its fracture usually uneven, but sometimes a little conchoidal. it is found amorphous and in regular crystals.
FAHLUNITE, n.
Automalite, a subspecies of octahedral corundum.
FAIL, v.i. [L. fallo; Gr. whence; Eng. felony. It seems to be allied to fall, fallow, pale, and many other words.]
1. To become deficient; to be insufficient; to cease to be abundant for supply; or to be entirely wanting. We say, in a dry season, the springs and streams fail, or are failing, before they are entirely exhausted. We say also, the springs failed, when they entirely ceased to flow. Crops fail wholly or partially.
2. To decay; to decline; to sink; to be diminished. We say of a sick person, his strength fails daily.
3. To decline; to decay; to sink; to become weaker; as, the patient fails every hour.
4. To be extinct; to cease; to be entirely wanting; to be no longer produced.
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. Psalm 12:1.
5. To be entirely exhausted; to be wanting; to cease from supply.
Money failed in the land of Egypt. Genesis 47:15.
6. To cease; to perish; to be lost.
Lest the remembrance of his grief should fail.
7. To die.
They shall all fail together. Isaiah 31:3.
8. To decay; to decline; as, the sight fails in old age.
9. To become deficient or wanting; as, the heart or the courage fails.
10. To miss; not to produce the effect. the experiment was made with care, but failed, or failed to produce the effect, or failed of the effect.
11. To be deficient in duty; to omit or neglect. the debtor failed to fulfil his promise.
12. To miss; to miscarry; to be frustrated or disappointed. The enemy attacked the fort, but failed in his design, or failed of success.
13. To be neglected; to fall short; not to be executed. the promises of a man of probity seldom fail.
The soul or the spirit fails, when a person is discouraged. The eyes fail, when the desires and expectations are long delayed, and the person is disappointed.
14. To become insolvent or bankrupt. When merchants and traders fail, they are said to become bankrupt. When other men fail, they are said to become insolvent.
FAIL, v.t.
1. To desert; to disappoint; to cease or to neglect or omit to afford aid, supply or strength. it is said, fortune never fails the brave. Our friends sometimes fail us, when we most need them. The aged attempt to walk, when their limbs fail them. In bold enterprises, courage should never fail the hero.
2. to omit; not to perform.
The inventive God, who never fails his part.
3. to be wanting to.
There shall never fail thee a man on the throne. 1 Kings 2:4.
[In the transitive use of this verb there is really an ellipsis of from or to, or other word. In strictness, the verb is not transitive, and the passive particple is, I believe, never used.]
FAIL, n. Omission; non-performance.
1. He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites. Joshua 3:10.
2. Miscarriage; failure; deficience; want; death.
[In these senses little used.]
FAILANCE, n. fault; failure. Obs.
FAILING, ppr. Becoming deficient or insufficient; becoming weaker; decaying; declining; omitting; not executing or performing; miscarrying; neglecting; wanting; becoming bankrupt or insolvent.
FAILING, n.
1. The act of failing; deficiency; imperfection; lapse; fault. Failings, in a moral sense, are minor faults, proceeding rather from weakness of intellect or from carelessness, than from bad motives. But the word is often abusively applied to vices of a grosser kind.
2. The act of failing or becoming insolvent.
FAILURE, n. fa’ilyur.
1. A failing; deficience; cessation of supply, or total defect; as the failure of springs or streams; failure of rain; failure of crops.
2. Omission; non-performance; as the failure of a promise; a man’s failure in the execution of a trust.
3. Decay, or defect from decay; as the failure of memory or of sight.
4. A breaking, or becoming insolvent. At the close of a war, the prices of commodities fall, and innumerable failures secceed.
5. A failing; a slight fault. [Little used.]
FAIN, a.
1. Glad; pleased; rejoiced. but the appropriate sense of the word is, glad or pleased to do something under some kind of necessity; that is, glad to evade evil or secure good. Thus, says Locke, “The learned Castalio was fain to make trenches at Basil, to keep himself from starving.” this appropriation of the word, which is modern, led Dr. Johnson into a mistake in defining the word. The proper signification is glad, joyful.
FAIN, adv. Gladly; with joy or pleasure.
He would fain flee out of his hand. Job 27:22.
He would fain have filled his belly with husks. Luke 15:16.
FAIN, v.i. to wish or desire. [Not used.]
FAINING, ppr. wishing; desiring fondly.
In his faining eye.
FAINT, a. [L. vanus, whence to vanish. Eng. to wane.]
1. weak; languid; inclined to swoon; as, to be rendered faint by excessive evacuations.
2. Weak; feeble; languid; exhausted; as faint with fatigue, hunger or thirst.
3. Weak, as color; not bright or vivid; not strong; as a faint color; a faint red or blue; a faint light.
4. Feeble; weak, as sound; not loud; as a faint sound; a faint voice.
5. Imperfect; feeble; not striking; as a faint resemblance or image.
6. Cowardly; timorous. A faint heart never wins a fair lady.
7. Feeble; not vigorous; not active; as a faint resistance; a faint exertion.
8. Dejected; depressed; dispirited.
My heart is faint. Lamentations 1:22.
FAINT, v.i.
1. To lose the animal functions; to lose strength and color, and become senseless and motionless; to swoon; sometimes with away. he fainted for loss of blood.
On hearing the honor intended her, she fainted away.
2. To become feeble; to decline or fail in strength and vigor; to be weak.
If I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way. Mark 8:3.
3. To sink into dejection; to lose courage or spirit.
Let not your hearts faint. Deuteronomy 20:3.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Proverbs 24:10.
4. To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
Gilded clouds, while we gaze on them, faint before the eye.
FAINT, v.t. To deject; to depress; to weaken. [Unusual.]
FAINTHEARTED, a. Cowardly; timorous; dejected; easily depressed, or yielding to fear.
Fear not, neither be fainthearted. Isaiah 7:4.
FAINTHEARTEDLY, adv. In a cowardly manner.
FAINTHEARTEDNESS, n. Cowardice; timorousness; want of courage.
FAINTING, ppr. Falling into a swoon; failing; losing strength or courage; becoming feeble or timid.
FAINTING, n. A temporary loss of strength, color and respiration; syncope; deliquium; leipothymy; a swoon.
FAINTISH, a. Slightly faint.
FAINTISHNESS, n. A slight degree of faintness.
FAINTLING, a. Timorous; feeble-minded. [Not used.]
FAINTLY, adv.
1. In a feeble, languid manner; without vigor or activity; as, to attack or defend faintly.
2. With a feeble flame; as, a torch burns faintly.
3. With a feeble light; as, the candle burns faintly.
4. With little force; as, to breathe faintly.
5. Without force of representation; imperfectly; as, to describe faintly what we have seen.
6. In a low tone; with a feeble voice; as, to speak faintly.
7. Without spirit or courage; timorously.
He faintly now declines the fatal strife.
FAINTNESS, n.
1. The state of being faint; loss of strength, color and respiration.
2. Feebleness; languor; want of strength.
3. Inactivity; want of vigor.
4. Feebleness, as of color or light.
5. Feebleness of representation; as faintness of description.
6. Feebleness of mind; timorousness; dejection; irresolution.
I will send a faintness into their hearts. Leviticus 26:36.
FAINTS, n. plu. the gross fetid oil remaining after distillation, or a weak spirituous liquor that runs from the still in rectifying the low wines after the proof spirit is drawn off; also, the last runnings of all spirits distilled by the alembic.
FAINTY, a. weak; feeble; languid.
FAIR, a.
1. Clear; free from spots; free from a dark hue; white; as a fair skin; a fair complexion. hence,
2. Beautiful; handsome; properly, having a handsome face.
Thou art a fair woman to look upon. Genesis 12:11. Hence,
3. Pleasing to the eye; handsome or beautiful in general.
Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches. Ezekiel 31:7.
4. Clear; pure; free from feculence or extraneous matter; as fair water.
5. Clear; not cloudy or overcast; as fair weather; a fair sky.
6. Favorable; prosperous; blowing in a direction towards the place of destination; as a fair wind at sea.
7. Open; direct, as a way or passage. You are in a fair way to promotion. hence, likely to succeed. he stands as fair to succeed as any man.
8. Open to attack or access; unobstructed; as a fair mark; a fair butt; fair in sight; in fair sight; a fair view.
9. Open; frank; hones; hence, equal; just; equitable. My friend is a fair man; his offer is fair; his propositions are fair and honorable.
10. Not effected by insidious or unlawful methods; not foul.
He died a fair and natural death.
11. Frank; candid; not sophistical or insidious; as a fair disputant.
12. Honest; honorable; mild; opposed to insidious and compulsory; as, to accomplish a thing by fair means.
13. Frank; civil; pleasing; not harsh.
When fair words and good counsel will not prevail on us, we must be frighted into our duty.
14. Equitable; just; erited.
His doom is fair,
That dust I am, and shall to dust return.
15. Liberal; not narrow; as a fair livelihood.
16. Plain; legible; as, the letter is written in a fair hand.
17. Free from stain or blemish; unspotted; untarnished; as a fair character or fame.
FAIR, adv.
1. Openly; frankly; civilly; complaisantly.
One of the company spoke him fair.
2. Candidly; honestly; equitably; He promised fair.
3. Happily; successfully.
Now fair befall thee.
4. On good terms; as, to keep fair with the world; to stand fair with one’s companions.
To bid fair, is to be likely, or to have a fair prospect.
Fair and square, just dealing; honesty.
FAIR, n.
1. Elliptically, a fair woman; a handsome female. The fair, the female sex.
2. Fairness; applied to things or persons. [Not used.]
FAIR, n. [L. forum, or feriae, a holiday, a day exempt from labor; Gr. to trade, whence, emporium, the primary sense of which is to pass.]
A stated market in a particular town or city; a stated meeting of buyers and sellers for trade. A fair is annual or more frequent. The privilege of holding fairs is granted by the king or supreme power. Among the most celebrated fairs in Europe are those of Frankfort and Leipsic in Germany; of Novi in the Milanese; of Riga and Archangel in Russia; of Lyons and St. Germain in France. In Great Britain many towns enjoy this privilege.