Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
FEIGNEDNESS — FENESTRAL
FEIGNEDNESS, n. Fiction; pretense; deceit.
FEIGNER, n. One who feigns; an inventor; a deviser of fiction.
FEIGNING, ppr. Imagining; inventing; pretending; making a false show.
FEIGNING, n. A false appearance; artful contrivance.
FEIGNINGLY, adv. With false appearance.
FEINT, n.
1. An assumed or false appearance; a pretense of doing something not intended to be done.
Courtley’s letter is but a feint to get off.
2. A mock attack; an appearance of aiming at one part when another is intended to be struck. In fencing, a show of making a thrust at one part, to deceive an antagonist, when the intention is to strike another part.
FEINT, a. or pp. Counterfeit; seeming. [Not used.]
FELANDERS, n. [See Filanders.]
FELDSPAR, FELSPAR, FELDSPATH, FELSPATH, n. A mineral widely distributed and usually of a foliated structure. When in crystals or crystalline masses, it is very susceptible of mechanical division at natural joints. its hardness is a little inferior to that of quartz. There are several varieties, as common feldspar, the adularia, the siliceous, the glassy, the ice-spar, the opalescent, aventurine feldspar, petuntze, the granular, and the compact.
FELDSPATHIC, a. Pertaining to feldspar, or consisting of it.
FELICITATE, v.t. [L. felicito, from felix, happy.]
1. To make very happy.
What a glorious entertainment and pleasure would fill and felicitate his spirit, if he could grasp all in a single survey.
More generally,
2. To congratulate; to express joy or pleasure to. We felicitate our friends on the acquisition of good, or an escape from evil.
FELICITATE, a. Made very happy.
FELICITATED, pp. Made very happy; congratulated.
FELICITATING, ppr. Making very happy; congratulating.
FELICITATION, n. Congratulation.
FELICITOUS, a. Very happy; prosperous; delightful.
FELICITOUSLY, adv. Happily.
FELICITY, n. [L. felicitas, from felix, happy.]
1. Happiness, or rather great happiness; blessedness; blissfulness; appropriately, the joys of heaven.
2. Prosperity; blessing; enjoyment of good.
The felicities of her wonderful reign may be complete.
Females - who confer on life its finest felicities.
FELINE, a. [L. felinus, from felis, a cat.]
Pertaining to cats, or to their species; like a cat; noting the cat kind or the genus Felis. We say, the feline race; feline rapacity.
FELL, pret. of fall.
FELL, a.
1. Cruel; barbarous; inhuman.
It seemed fury, discord, madness fell.
2. Fierce; savage; ravenous; bloody.
More fell than tigers on the Libyan plain.
FELL, n. [L. pellis.] A skin or hide of a beast; used chiefly in composition, as wool-fell.
FELL, n. A barren or stony hill. [Local.]
FELL, v.t. To cause to fall; to prostrate; to bring to the ground, either by cutting, as to fell trees, or by striking, as to fell an ox.
FELLED, pp. Knocked or cut down.
FELLER, n. One who hews or knocks down. Isaiah 14:8.
FELLIFLUOUS, a. [L. fel, gall, and fluo, to flow.] Flowing with gall.
FELLING, ppr. Cutting or beating to the ground.
FELLMONGER, n. [fell and monger.] A dealer in hides.
FELLNESS, n. [See Fell, cruel.] Cruelty; fierce barbarity; rage.
FELLOE, [See Felly.]
FELLOW, n. [Heb. to tie or connect, to be joined or associated.]
1. A companion; an associate.
In youth I had twelve fellows, like myself.
Each on his fellow for assistance calls.
2. One of the same kind.
A shepherd had one favorite dog; he fed him with his own hand, and took more care of him than of his fellows.
3. An equal.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith Jehovah of hosts. Zechariah 13:7.
4. One of a pair, or of two things used together and suited to each other. Of a pair of gloves, we call one the fellow of the other.
5. One equal or like another. Of an artist we say, this man has not his fellow, that is, one of like skill.
6. An appellation of contempt; a man without good breeding or worth; an ignoble man; as a mean fellow.
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow.
7. A member of a college that shares its revenues; or a member of any incorporated society.
8. A member of a corporation; a trustee.
[vow and fellow] One bound by the same vow. [Little used.]
FELLOW, v.t. To suit with; to pair with; to match. [Little used.]
In composition, fellow denotes community of nature, station or employment.
FELLOW-CITIZEN, n. A citizen of the same state or nation. Ephesians 2:19.
FELLOW-COMMONER, n.
1. One who has the same right of common.
2. In Cambridge, England, one who dines with the fellows.
FELLOW-COUNSELOR, n. An associate in council.
FELLOW-CREATURE, n. One of the same race or kind. Thus men are all called fellow-creatures. Watts uses the word for one made by the same creator. “Reason by which we are raised above our fellow-creatures, the brutes.” But the word is not now used in this sense.
FELLOW-FEELING, n.
1. Sympathy; a like feeling.
2. Joint interest. [Not in use.]
FELLOW-HEIR, n. A co-heir, or joint-heir; one entitled to a share of the same inheritance.
That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs. Ephesians 3:6.
FELLOW-HELPER, n. A co-adjutor; one who concurs or aids in the same business. 3 John 8.
FELLOW-LABORER, n. One who labors in the same business or design.
FELLOWLIKE, a. Like a companion; companionable; on equal terms.
FELLOW-MAIDEN, n. A maiden who is an associate.
FELLOW-MEMBER, n. A member of the same body.
FELLOW-MINISTER, n. One who officiates in the same ministry or calling.
FELLOW-PEER, n. One who has the like privileges of nobility.
FELLOW-PRISONER, n. One imprisoned in the same place. Romans 16:7.
FELLOW-RAKE, n. An associate in vice and profligacy.
FELLOW-SCHOLAR, n. An associate in studies.
FELLOW-SERVANT, n. One who has the same master.
FELLOWSHIP, n.
1. Companionship; society; consort; mutual association of persons on equal and friendly terms; familiar intercourse.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Ephesians 5:11.
Men are made for society and mutual fellowship.
2. Association; confederacy; combination.
Most of the other christian princes were drawn into the fellowship of that war. [Unusual.]
3. Partnership; joint interest; as fellowship in pain.
4. Company; a state of being together.
The great contention of the sea and skies parted our fellowship.
5. Frequency of intercourse.
In a great town friends are scattered, so that there is not that fellowship which is in less neighborhoods.
6. Fitness and fondness for festive entertainments; with good prefixed.
He had by his good fellowship - made himself popular, with all the officers of the army.
7. Communion; intimate familiarity. 1 John 1:3.
8. In arithmetic, the rule of proportions, by which the accounts of partners in business are adjusted, so that each partner may have a share of gain or sustain a share of loss, in proportion to his part of the stock.
9. An establishment in colleges, for the maintenance of a fellow.
FELLOW-SOLDIER, n. One who fights under the same commander, or is engaged in the same service. Officers often address their companions in arms by this appellation.
FELLOW-STREAM, n. A stream in the vicinity.
FELLOW-STUDENT, n. One who studies in the same company or class with another, or who belongs to the same school.
FELLOW-SUBJECT, n. One who is subject to the same government with another.
FELLOW-SUFFERER, n. One who shares in the same evil, or partakes of the same sufferings with another.
FELLOW-TRAVELER, n. One who travels in company with another.
FELLOW-WRITER, n. One who writes at the same time.
FELLOW-WORKER, n. One employed in the same occupation.
FELLY, adv. [See Fell, cruel.] Cruelly; fiercely; barbarously.
FELLY, n. The exterior part or rim of a wheel, supported by the spokes.
Felo de se, in law, one who commits felony by suicide, or deliberately destroys his own life.
FELON, n. [Low L. felo.]
1. In law, a person who has committed felony. [See Felony.]
2. A whitlow; a painful swelling formed in the periosteum at the end of the finger.
FELON, a.
1. Malignant; fierce; malicious; proceeding from a depraved heart.
Vain shows of love to vail his felon hate.
2. Traitorous; disloyal.
FELONIOUS, a.
1. Malignant; malicious; indicating or proceeding from a depraved heart or evil purpose; villainous; traitorous; perfidious; as a felonious deed.
2. In law, proceeding from an evil heart or purpose; done with the deliberate purpose to commit a crime; as felonious homicide.
FELONNIOUSLY, adv. In a felonious manner; with the deliberate intention to commit a crime. Indictments for capital offenses must state the fact to be done feloniously.
FELON-WORT, n. A plant of the genus Solanum.
FELONY, n. [See Felon.] In common law, any crime which incurs the forfeiture of lands or goods. Treason was formerly comprised under the name of felony, but is now distinguished from crimes thus denominated, although it is really a felony. All offenses punishable with death are felonies; and so are some crimes not thus punished, as suicide, homicide by chance-medley, or in self-defense, and petty larceny. Capital punishment therefore does not necessarily enter into the true idea or definition of felony; the true criterion of felony being forfeiture of lands or goods. But the idea of felony has been so generally connected with that of capital punishment, that law and usage now confirm that connection. Thus if a statute makes any new offense a felony, it is understood to mean a crime punishable with death.
FELSITE, n. [See Feldspar.] A species of compact feldspar, of an azure blue or green color, found amorphous associated with quartz and mica.
FELT, pret. of feel.
FELT, n. [L. pellis, Eng. fell, a skin from plucking or stripping, L. vello, vellus, Eng. wool.]
1. A cloth or stuff made of wool, or wool and hair, fulled or wrought into a compact substance by rolling and pressure with lees or size.
2. A hat made of wool.
3. Skin.
To know whether sheep are sound or not, see that the felt be loose.
FELT, v.t. To make cloth or stuff of wool, or wool and hair, by fulling.
FELTER, v.t. To clot or meet together like felt.
FELTMAKER, n. One whose occupation is to make felt.
FELUCCA, n.
A boat or vessel, with oars and lateen sails, used in the Mediterranean. It has this peculiarity, that the helm may be applied to the head or stern, as occasion requires.
FELWORT, n. A plant, a species of Gentian.
FEMALE, n. [L. femella. See Feminine.]
1. Among animals, one of that sex which conceives and brings forth young.
2. Among plants, that which produces fruit; that which bears the pistil and receives the pollen of the male flowers.
FEMALE, a.
1. Noting the sex which produces young; not male; as a female bee.
2. Pertaining to females; as a female hand or heart; female tenderness.
To the generous decision of a female mind, we owe the discovery of America.
3. Feminine; soft; delicate; weak.
Female rhymes, double rhymes, so called from the French, in which language they end in e feminine.
FEMALE-FLOWER, n. In botany, a flower which is furnished with the pistil, pointal, or female organs.
FEMALE-PLANT, n. A plant which produces female flowers.
FEMALE-SCREW, n. A screw with grooves or channels.
FEME-COVERT, FEMME-COVERT, n. A married woman, who is under covert of her baron or husband.
FEME-SOLE, FEMME-SOLE, n. An unmarried woman.
Femme-sole merchant, a woman who uses a trade alone, or without her husband.
FEMINALITY, n. The female nature.
FEMINATE, a. Feminine. [Not in use.]
FEMININE, a. [L. femininus, from femina, woman. The first syllable may be and probably is from wemb or womb, by the use of f for w; the b not being radical. The last part of the word is probably from man, quasi, femman, womb-man.]
1. Pertaining to a woman, or to women, or to females; as the female sex.
2. soft; tender; delicate.
Her heavenly form angelic, but more soft and feminine.
3. Effeminate; destitute of manly qualities.
4. In grammar, denoting the gender or words which signify females, or the terminations of such words. words are said to be of the feminine gender, when they denote females, or have the terminations proper to express females in any given language. Thus in L. dominus, a lord, is masculine; but domina, is mistress, a female.
Milton uses feminine as a noun, for female.
FEMINITY, n. The quality of the female sex. [Not used.]
FEMINIZE, v.t. To make womanish. [Not used.]
FEMORAL, a. [L. femoralis, from femur, the thigh.]
Belonging to the thigh; as the femoral artery.
FEN, n. [L. fons, Eng. fountain.]
Low land overflowed, or covered wholly or partially with water, but producing sedge, coarse grasses, or other aquatic plants; boggy land; a moor or marsh.
A long canal the muddy fen divides.
FEN-BERRY, n. A kind of blackberry.
FEN-BORN, a. Born or produced in a fen.
FEN-CRESS, n. Cress growing in fens.
FEN-CRICKET, n. an insect that digs for itself a little hole in the ground.
FEN-DUCK, n. a species of wild duck.
FEN-FOWL, n. any fowl that frequents fens.
FEN-LAND, n. Marshy land.
FEN-SUCKED, a. Sucked out of marshes; as fen-sucked fogs.
FENCE, n. fens. [See Fend.]
1. A wall, hedge, ditch, bank, or line of posts and rails, or of boards or pickets, intended to confine beasts from straying, and to guard a field from being entered by cattle, or from other encroachment. A good farmer has good fences about his farm; an insufficient fence is evidence of bad management. Broken windows and poor fences are evidences of idleness or poverty or of both.
2. A guard; any thing to restrain entrance; that which defends from attack, approach or injury; security; defense.
A fence betwixt us and the victor’s wrath.
3. Fencing, or the art of fencing; defense.
4. Skill in fencing or defense.
FENCE, v.t. fens.
1. To inclose with a hedge, wall, or any thing that prevents the escape or entrance of cattle; to secure by an inclosure. In New England, farmers, for the most part, fence their lands with posts and rails, or with stone walls. In England, lands are usually fenced with hedges and ditches.
He hath fenced my way that I cannot pass. Job 19:8.
2. To guard; to fortify.
So much of adder’s wisdom I have learnt, to fence my ear against thy sorceries.
FENCE, v.i.
1. To practice the art of fencing; to use a sword or foil, for the purpose of learning the art of attack and defense. To fence well is deemed a useful accomplishment for military gentlemen.
2. To fight and defend by giving and avoiding blows or thrusts.
They fence and push, and pushing, loudly roar, their dewlaps and their sides are bathed in gore.
3. To raise a fence; to guard. It is difficult to fence against unruly cattle.
FENCED, pp. Inclosed with a fence; guarded; fortified.
FENCEFUL, a. fens’ful. Affording defense.
FENCELESS, a. fens’less.
1. Without a fence; uninclosed; unguarded.
2. Open; not inclosed; as the fenceless ocean.
FENCE-MONTH, n. The month in which hunting in any forest is prohibited.
FENCER, n. One who fences; one who teaches or practices the art of fencing with sword or foil.
FENCIBLE, a.
1. Capable of defense.
2. n. A soldier for defense of the country; as a regiment of fencibles.
FENCING, ppr. Inclosing with fence; guarding; fortifying.
FENCING, n.
1. The art of using skillfully a sword or foil in attack or defense; an art taught in schools.
2. The materials of fences for farms.
FENCING-MASTER, n. One who teaches the art of attack and defense with sword or foil.
FENCING-SCHOOL, n. A school in which the art of fencing is taught.
FEND, v.t. [The root of defend and offend. The primary sense is to fall on, or to strike, to repel.]
To keep off; to prevent from entering; to ward off; to shut out.
With fern beneath to fend the bitter cold.
It is usually followed by off; as, to fend off blows.
To fend off a boat or vessel, is to prevent its running against another, or against a wharf, etc., with too much violence.
FEND, v.i. To act in opposition; to resist; to parry; to shift off.
FENDED, pp. Kept off; warded off; shut out.
FENDER, n.
1. That which defends; an utensil employed to hinder coals of fire from rolling forward to the floor.
2. A piece of timber or other thing hung over the side of a vessel to prevent it from striking or rubbing against a wharf, also to preserve a small vessel from being injured by a large one.