The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: Section F, G and H
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Title: The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: Section F, G and H
Author: Project Gutenberg
Noah Webster
Release date: September 1, 1996 [eBook #663]
Most recently updated: June 9, 2025
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GUTENBERG WEBSTER'S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY: SECTION F, G AND H ***
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Version published 1913
by the C. & G. Merriam Co.
Springfield, Mass.
Under the direction of
Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D.
<! p. 535 !>
F.
F (f). 1. F is the sixth letter of the English alphabet, and a nonvocal
consonant. Its form and sound are from the Latin. The Latin borrowed
the form from the Greek digamma &?;, which probably had the value of
English w consonant. The form and value of Greek letter came from the
Phúnician, the ultimate source being probably Egyptian. Etymologically
f is most closely related to p, k, v, and b; as in E. five, Gr. pe`nte;
E. wolf, L. lupus, Gr. ly`kos; E. fox, vixen ; fragile, break; fruit,
brook, v. t.; E. bear, L. ferre. See Guide to Pronunciation, ßß 178,
179, 188, 198, 230.
2. (Mus.) The name of the fourth tone of the model scale, or scale of
C. F sharp (F ) is a tone intermediate between F and G.
F clef, the bass clef. See under Clef.
Fa (f‰), n. [It.] (Mus.) (a) A syllable applied to the fourth tone of
the diatonic scale in solmization. (b) The tone F.
Fa*ba"ceous (f*b"shs), a. [L. fabaceus, fr. faba bean.] Having the
nature of a bean; like a bean.
||Fa*bel"la (?), n.; pl. Fabellae (-l&?;). [NL., dim. of L. faba a
||bean.] (Anat.) One of the small sesamoid bones situated behind the
||condyles of the femur, in some mammals.
Fa"bi*an (?), a. [L. Fabianus, Fabius, belonging to Fabius.] Of,
pertaining to, or in the manner of, the Roman general, Quintus Fabius
Maximus Verrucosus; cautious; dilatory; avoiding a decisive contest.
Fabian policy, a policy like that of Fabius Maximus, who, by carefully
avoiding decisive contests, foiled Hannibal, harassing his army by
marches, countermarches, and ambuscades; a policy of delays and
cautions.
Fa"ble (f"b'l), n. [F., fr. L. fabula, fr. fari to speak, say. See Ban,
and cf. Fabulous, Fame.] 1. A Feigned story or tale, intended to
instruct or amuse; a fictitious narration intended to enforce some
useful truth or precept; an apologue. See the Note under Apologue.
Jotham's fable of the trees is the oldest extant.
Addison.
2. The plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject
of 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.
Dryden.
3. Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.
"Old wives' fables. " 1 Tim. iv. 7.
We grew The fable of the city where we dwelt.
Tennyson.
4. Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
It would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away
a great fortune by secret methods.
Addison.
Fa"ble, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fabled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fabling (?).]
To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction ; to write or utter
what is not true. "He Fables not." Shak.
Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell.
Prior.
He fables, yet speaks truth.
M. Arnold.
Fa"ble, v. t. To feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or
real; to tell of falsely.
The hell thou fablest.
Milton.
Fa"bler (f"blr), n. A writer of fables; a fabulist; a dealer in
untruths or falsehoods. Bp. Hall.
||Fa`bli`au" (?), n.; pl. Fabliaux (-"). [F., fr. OF. fablel, dim. of
||fable a fable.] (Fr. Lit.) One of the metrical tales of the
||TrouvËres, or early poets of the north of France.
Fab"ric (?), n. [L. fabrica fabric, workshop: cf. F. fabrique fabric.
See Forge.] 1. The structure of anything; the manner in which the parts
of a thing are united; workmanship; texture; make; as cloth of a
beautiful fabric.
2. That which is fabricated; as: (a) Framework; structure; edifice;
building.
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge Rose like an exhalation.
Milton.
(b) Cloth of any kind that is woven or knit from fibers, either
vegetable or animal; manufactured cloth; as, silks or other fabrics.
3. The act of constructing; construction. [R.]
Tithe was received by the bishop, . . . for the fabric of the
churches for the poor.
Milman.
4. Any system or structure consisting of connected parts; as, the
fabric of the universe.
The whole vast fabric of society.
Macaulay.
Fab"ric, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fabricked (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fabricking.] To frame; to build; to construct. [Obs.] "Fabric their
mansions." J. Philips.
Fab"ri*cant (?), n. [F.] One who fabricates; a manufacturer. Simmonds.
Fab"ri*cate (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fabricated (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fabricating (?).] [L. fabricatus, p. p. of fabricari, fabricare, to
frame, build, forge, fr. fabrica. See Fabric, Farge.] 1. To form into a
whole by uniting its parts; to frame; to construct; to build; as, to
fabricate a bridge or ship.
2. To form by art and labor; to manufacture; to produce; 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 accomodation to prevailing
usages.
Paley.
Fab`ri*ca"tion (?), n. [L. fabricatio; cf. F. fabrication.] 1. The act
of fabricating, framing, or constructing; construction; manufacture;
as, the fabrication of a bridge, a church, or a government. Burke.
2. That which is fabricated; a falsehood; as, the story is doubtless a
fabrication.
Syn. -- See Fiction.
Fab"ri*ca`tor (?), n. [L.] One who fabricates; one who constructs or
makes.
The fabricator of the works of Ossian.
Mason.
Fab"ri*ca`tress (?), n. A woman who fabricates.
Fab"rile (?), a. [L. fabrilis, fr. faber workman. See Forge.]
Pertaining to a workman, or to work in stone, metal, wood etc.; as,
fabrile skill.
Fab"u*list (?), n. [Cf. F. fabuliste, fr. L. fabula. See Fable.] One
who invents or writes fables.
Fab"u*lize (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fabulized (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fabulizing (?).] [Cf. F. fabuliser. See Fable.] To invent, compose, or
relate fables or fictions. G. S. Faber.
Fab`u*los"i*ty (?), n. [L. fabulositas: cf. F. fabulositÈ.] 1.
Fabulousness. [R.] Abp. Abbot.
2. A fabulous or fictitious story. [R.] Sir T. Browne.
Fab"u*lous (fb"*ls), a. [L. fabulosus; cf. F. fabuleux. See Fable.] 1.
Feigned, as a story or fable; related in fable; devised; invented; not
real; fictitious; as, a fabulous description; a fabulous hero.
The fabulous birth of Minerva.
Chesterfield.
2. Passing belief; exceedingly great; as, a fabulous price. Macaulay.
Fabulous age, that period in the history of a nation of which the only
accounts are myths and unverified legends; as, the fabulous age of
Greece and Rome.
-- Fab"u*lous*ly (#), adv. -- Fab"u*lous*ness, n.
Fab"ur*den (fb"r*den), n. [F. faux bourdon. See False, and Burden a
verse.] 1. (Mus.) (a) A species of counterpoint with a drone bass. (b)
A succession of chords of the sixth. [Obs.]
2. A monotonous refrain. [Obs.] Holland.
Fac (fk), n. [Abbrev. of facsimile.] A large ornamental letter used,
esp. by the early printers, at the commencement of the chapters and
other divisions of a book. Brande & C.
||Fa`Áade" (f`sd" or f`sd"), n. [F., fr. It. facciata, fr. faccia face,
||L. facies. See Face.] (Arch.) The front of a building; esp., the
||principal front, having some architectural pretensions. Thus a church
||is said to have its faÁade unfinished, though the interior may be in
||use.
Face (?), n. [F., from L. facies form, shape, face, perh. from facere
to make (see Fact); or perh. orig. meaning appearance, and from a root
meaning to shine, and akin to E. fancy. Cf. Facetious.] 1. The exterior
form or appearance of anything; that part which presents itself to the
view; especially, the front or upper part or surface; that which
particularly offers itself to the view of a spectator.
A mist . . . watered the whole face of the ground.
Gen. ii. 6.
Lake Leman wooes me with its crystal face.
Byron.
2. That part of a body, having several sides, which may be seen from
one point, or which is presented toward a certain direction; one of the
bounding planes of a solid; as, a cube has six faces.
3. (Mach.) (a) The principal dressed surface of a plate, disk, or
pulley; the principal flat surface of a part or object. (b) That part
of the acting surface of a cog in a cog wheel, which projects beyond
the pitch line. (c) The width of a pulley, or the length of a cog from
end to end; as, a pulley or cog wheel of ten inches face.
4. (Print.) (a) The upper surface, or the character upon the surface,
of a type, plate, etc. (b) The style or cut of a type or font of type.
5. Outside appearance; surface show; look; external aspect, whether
natural, assumed, or acquired.
To set a face upon their own malignant design.
Milton.
This would produce a new face of things in Europe.
Addison.
We wear a face of joy, because We have been glad of yore.
Wordsworth.
6. That part of the head, esp. of man, in which the eyes, cheeks, nose,
and mouth are situated; visage; countenance.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.
Gen. iii. 19.
7. Cast of features; expression of countenance; look; air; appearance.
We set the best faceon it we could.
Dryden.
8. (Astrol.) Ten degrees in extent of a sign of the zodiac. Chaucer.
9. Maintenance of the countenance free from abashment or confusion;
confidence; boldness; shamelessness; effrontery.
This is the man that has the face to charge others with false
citations.
Tillotson.
10. Presence; sight; front; as in the phrases, before the face of, in
the immediate presence of; in the face of, before, in, or against the
front of; as, to fly in the face of danger; to the face of, directly
to; from the face of, from the presence of.
11. Mode of regard, whether favorable or unfavorable; favor or anger;
mostly in Scriptural phrases.
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee.
Num. vi. 25.
My face [favor] will I turn also from them.
Ezek. vii. 22.
12. (Mining) The end or wall of the tunnel, drift, or excavation, at
which work is progressing or was last done.
13. (Com.) The exact amount expressed on a bill, note, bond, or other
mercantile paper, without any addition for interest or reduction for
discount. McElrath.
Face is used either adjectively or as part of a compound; as, face
guard or face-guard; face cloth; face plan or face-plan; face hammer.
Face ague (Med.), a form of neuralgia, characterized by acute
lancinating pains returning at intervals, and by twinges in certain
parts of the face, producing convulsive twitches in the corresponding
muscles; -- called also tic douloureux. -- Face card, one of a pack of
playing cards on which a human face is represented; the king, queen, or
jack. -- Face cloth, a cloth laid over the face of a corpse. -- Face
guard, a mask with windows for the eyes, worn by workman exposed to
great heat, or to flying particles of metal, stone, etc., as in glass
works, foundries, etc. -- Face hammer, a hammer having a flat face. --
Face joint (Arch.), a joint in the face of a wall or other structure.
-- Face mite (Zoˆll.), a small, elongated mite (Demdex folliculorum),
parasitic in the hair follicles of the face. -- Face mold, the templet
or pattern by which carpenters, ect., outline the forms which are to be
cut out from boards, sheet metal, ect. -- Face plate. (a) (Turning) A
plate attached to the spindle of a lathe, to which the work to be
turned may be attached. (b) A covering plate for an object, to receive
wear or shock. (c) A true plane for testing a dressed surface. Knight.
-- Face wheel. (Mach.) (a) A crown wheel. (b) A Wheel whose disk face
is adapted for grinding and polishing; a lap.
Cylinder face (Steam Engine), the flat part of a steam cylinder on
which a slide valve moves. -- Face of an anvil, its flat upper surface.
-- Face of a bastion (Fort.), the part between the salient and the
shoulder angle. -- Face of coal (Mining), the principal cleavage plane,
at right angles to the stratification. -- Face of a gun, the surface of
metal at the muzzle. -- Face of a place (Fort.), the front comprehended
between the flanked angles of two neighboring bastions. Wilhelm. --
Face of a square (Mil.), one of the sides of a battalion when formed in
a square. -- Face of a watch, clock, compass, card etc., the dial or
graduated surface on which a pointer indicates the time of day, point
of the compass, etc. -- Face to face. (a) In the presence of each
other; as, to bring the accuser and the accused face to face. (b)
Without the interposition of any body or substance. "Now we see through
a glass darkly; but then face to face." 1 Cor. xiii. 12. (c) With the
faces or finished surfaces turned inward or toward one another; vis ‡
vis; -- opposed to back to back. -- To fly in the face of, to defy; to
brave; to withstand. -- To make a face, to distort the countenance; to
make a grimace. Shak.
Face (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Faced (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Facing (?).]
1. To meet in front; to oppose with firmness; to resist, or to meet for
the purpose of stopping or opposing; to confront; to encounter; as, to
face an enemy in the field of battle.
I'll face This tempest, and deserve the name of king.
Dryden.
2. To Confront impudently; to bully.
I will neither be facednor braved.
Shak.
3. To stand opposite to; to stand with the face or front toward; to
front upon; as, the apartments of the general faced the park.
He gained also with his forces that part of Britain which faces
Ireland.
Milton.
4. To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing
upon; as, a building faced with marble.
5. To line near the edge, esp. with a different material; as, to face
the front of a coat, or the bottom of a dress.
6. To cover with better, or better appearing, material than the mass
consists of, for purpose of deception, as the surface of a box of tea,
a barrel of sugar, etc.
7. (Mach.) To make the surface of (anything) flat or smooth; to dress
the face of (a stone, a casting, etc.); esp., in turning, to shape or
smooth the flat surface of, as distinguished from the cylindrical
surface.
8. To cause to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular
direction.
To face down, to put down by bold or impudent opposition. "He faced men
down." Prior. -- To face (a thing) out, to persist boldly or impudently
in an assertion or in a line of conduct. "That thinks with oaths to
face the matter out." Shak.
Face, v. i. 1. To carry a false appearance; to play the hypocrite. "To
lie, to face, to forge." Spenser.
2. To turn the face; as, to face to the right or left.
Face about, man; a soldier, and afraid!
Dryden.
3. To present a face or front.
Faced (fst), a. Having (such) a face, or (so many) faces; as,
smooth-faced, two- faced.
Fa"cer (f"sr), n. 1. One who faces; one who puts on a false show; a
bold-faced person. [Obs.]
There be no greater talkers, nor boasters, nor fasers.
Latimer.
2. A blow in the face, as in boxing; hence, any severe or stunning
check or defeat, as in controversy. [Collog.]
I should have been a stercoraceous mendicant if I had hollowed when
I got a facer.
C. Kingsley.
<! p. 536 !>
Fac"et (?), n. [F. facette, dim. of face face. See Face.] 1. A little
face; a small, plane surface; as, the facets of a diamond. [Written
also facette.]
2. (Anat.) A smooth circumscribed surface; as, the articular facet of a
bone.
3. (Arch.) The narrow plane surface between flutings of a column.
4. (Zoˆl.) One of the numerous small eyes which make up the compound
eyes of insects and crustaceans.
Fac"et, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Faceted; p. pr. & vb. n. Faceting.] To cut
facets or small faces upon; as, to facet a diamond.
Fa*cete" (?), a. [L. facetus elegant, fine, facetious; akin to facies.
See Face, and cf. Facetious.] Facetious; witty; humorous. [Archaic] "A
facete discourse." Jer. Taylor.
"How to interpose" with a small, smart remark, sentiment facete, or
unctuous anecdote.
Prof. Wilson.
-- Fa*cete"ly, adv. -- Fa*cete"ness, n.
Fac"et*ed (?), a. Having facets.
||Fa*ce"ti*Ê (&?;), n. pl. [L., fr. facetus. See Facete.] Witty or
||humorous writings or saying; witticisms; merry conceits.
Fa*ce"tious (?), a. [Cf. F. facÈtieux. See FacetiÊ.] 1. Given to wit
and good humor; merry; sportive; jocular; as, a facetious companion.
2. Characterized by wit and pleasantry; exciting laughter; as, a
facetious story or reply.
-- Fa*ce"tious*ly, adv. -- Fa*ce"tious*ness, n.
Fa*cette" (?), n. [F.] See Facet, n.
Face"work` (?), n. The material of the outside or front side, as of a
wall or building; facing.
Fa"ci*a (?), n. (Arch.) See Fascia.
Fa"cial (?), a. [LL. facialis, fr. L. facies face : cf. F. facial.] Of
or pertaining to the face; as, the facial artery, vein, or nerve. --
Fa"cial*ly, adv.
Facial angle (Anat.), the angle, in a skull, included between a
straight line (ab, in the illustrations), from the most prominent part
of the forehead to the front efge of the upper jaw bone, and another
(cd) from this point to the center of the external auditory opening.
See Gnathic index, under Gnathic.
Fa"ci*end (?), n. [From neut. of L. faciendus, gerundive of facere to
do.] (Mach.) The multiplicand. See Facient, 2.
Fa"cient (?), n. [L. faciens, -- entis, p. pr. of facere to make, do.
See Fact.] 1. One who does anything, good or bad; a doer; an agent.
[Obs.] Bp. Hacket.
2. (Mach.) (a) One of the variables of a quantic as distinguished from
a coefficient. (b) The multiplier.
The terms facient, faciend, and factum, may imply that the
multiplication involved is not ordinary multiplication, but is either
some specified operation, or, in general, any mathematical operation.
See Multiplication.
||Fa"ci*es (?), n. [L., from, face. See Face.]
1. The anterior part of the head; the face.
2. (Biol.) The general aspect or habit of a species, or group of
species, esp. with reference to its adaptation to its environment.
3. (Zoˆl.) The face of a bird, or the front of the head, excluding the
bill.
Facies Hippocratica. (Med.) See Hippocratic.
Fac"ile (?) a. [L. facilis, prop., capable of being done or made,
hence, facile, easy, fr. facere to make, do: cf. F. facile. Srr Fact,
and cf. Faculty.] 1. Easy to be done or performed: not difficult;
performable or attainable with little labor.
Order . . . will render the work facile and delightful.
Evelyn.
2. Easy to be surmounted or removed; easily conquerable; readily
mastered.
The facile gates of hell too slightly barred.
Milton.
3. Easy of access or converse; mild; courteous; not haughty, austere,
or distant; affable; complaisant.
I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet.
B. Jonson.
4. Easily persuaded to good or bad; yielding; ductile to a fault;
pliant; flexible.
Since Adam, and his facile consort Eve, Lost Paradise, deceived by
me.
Milton.
This is treating Burns like a child, a person of so facile a
disposition as not to be trusted without a keeper on the king's
highway.
Prof. Wilson.
5. Ready; quick; expert; as, he is facile in expedients; he wields a
facile pen.
-- Fac"ile*ly, adv. -- Fac"ile*ness, n.
Fa*cil"i*tate (f*sl"*tt), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Facilitated (-t`td); p.
pr. & vb. n. Facilitating (-t`tng).] [Cf. F. faciliter. See Facility.]
To make easy or less difficult; to free from difficulty or impediment;
to lessen the labor of; as, to facilitate the execution of a task.
To invite and facilitate that line of proceeding which the times
call for.
I. Taylor.
Fa*cil`i*ta"tion (?), n. The act of facilitating or making easy.
Fa*cil"i*ty (f*sl"*t), n.; pl. Facilities (- tz). [L. facilitas, fr.
facilis easy: cf. F. facilitÈ. See Facile.] 1. The quality of being
easily performed; freedom from difficulty; ease; as, the facility of an
operation.
The facility with which government has been overturned in France.
Burke.
2. Ease in performance; readiness proceeding from skill or use;
dexterity; as, practice gives a wonderful facility in executing works
of art.
3. Easiness to be persuaded; readiness or compliance; -- usually in a
bad sense; pliancy.
It is a great error to take facility for good nature.
L'Estrange.
4. Easiness of access; complaisance; affability.
Offers himself to the visits of a friend with facility.
South.
5. That which promotes the ease of any action or course of conduct;
advantage; aid; assistance; -- usually in the plural; as, special
facilities for study.
Syn. -- Ease; expertness; readiness; dexterity; complaisance;
condescension; affability. -- Facility, Expertness, Readiness. These
words have in common the idea of performing any act with ease and
promptitude. Facility supposes a natural or acquired power of
dispatching a task with lightness and ease. Expertness is the kind of
facility acquired by long practice. Readiness marks the promptitude
with which anything is done. A merchant needs great facility in
dispatching business; a banker, great expertness in casting accounts;
both need great readiness in passing from one employment to another.
"The facility which we get of doing things by a custom of doing, makes
them often pass in us without our notice." Locke. "The army was
celebrated for the expertness and valor of the soldiers." "A readiness
to obey the known will of God is the surest means to enlighten the mind
in respect to duty."
Fa"cing (?), n. 1. A covering in front, for ornament or other purpose;
an exterior covering or sheathing; as, the facing of an earthen slope,
sea wall, etc. , to strengthen it or to protect or adorn the exposed
surface.
2. A lining placed near the edge of a garment for ornament or
protection.
3. (Arch.) The finishing of any face of a wall with material different
from that of which it is chiefly composed, or the coating or material
so used.
4. (Founding) A powdered substance, as charcoal, bituminous coal, ect.,
applied to the face of a mold, or mixed with the sand that forms it, to
give a fine smooth surface to the casting.
5. (Mil.) (a) pl. The collar and cuffs of a military coat; -- commonly
of a color different from that of the coat. (b) The movement of
soldiers by turning on their heels to the right, left, or about; --
chiefly in the pl.
Facing brick, front or pressed brick.
Fa"cing*ly, adv. In a facing manner or position.
Fa*cin"o*rous (?), a. [L. facinorous, from facinus deed, bad deed, from
facere to make, do.] Atrociously wicked. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.
-- Fa*cin"o*rous*ness, n. [Obs.]
Fac"ound (?), n. [F. faconde, L. facundia. See Facund.] Speech;
eloquence. [Obs.]
Her facound eke full womanly and plain.
Chaucer.
Fac*sim"i*le (?), n.; pl. Facsimiles (-l&?;z). [L. fac simile make
like; or an abbreviation of factum simile made like; facere to make +
similes like. See Fact, and Simile.] A copy of anything made, either so
as to be deceptive or so as to give every part and detail of the
original; an exact copy or likeness.
Facsimile telegraph, a telegraphic apparatus reproducing messages in
autograph.
Fac*sim"i*le, (&?;), v. t. To make a facsimile of.
Fact (fkt), n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf. Feat, Affair,
Benefit, Defect, Fashion, and -fy.] 1. A doing, making, or preparing.
[Obs.]
A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of fucus, paint
for ladies.
B. Jonson.
2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass;
an act; an event; a circumstance.
What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to
conjecture.
Evelyn.
He who most excels in fact of arms.
Milton.
3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest;
the fact is, he was beaten.
4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing; sometimes,
even when false, improperly put, by a transfer of meaning, for the
thing done, or supposed to be done; a thing supposed or asserted to be
done; as, history abounds with false facts.
I do not grant the fact.
De Foe.
This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not true.
Roger Long.
The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with law;
as, attorney at law, and attorney in fact; issue in law, and issue in
fact. There is also a grand distinction between law and fact with
reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter
generally determining the fact, the former the law. Burrill Bouvier.
[1913 Webster]
Accessary before, or after, the fact. See under Accessary. -- Matter of
fact, an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or
pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact
narration.
Syn. -- Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence;
circumstance.
Fac"tion (fk"shn), n. [L. factio a doing, a company of persons acting
together, a faction: cf. F. faction See Fashion.] 1. (Anc. Hist.) One
of the divisions or parties of charioteers (distinguished by their
colors) in the games of the circus.
2. A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in
opposition to the government, or state; -- usually applied to a
minority, but it may be applied to a majority; a combination or clique
of partisans of any kind, acting for their own interests, especially if
greedy, clamorous, and reckless of the common good.
3. Tumult; discord; dissension.
They remained at Newbury in great faction among themselves.
Clarendon.
Syn. -- Combination; clique; junto. See Cabal.
Fac"tion*a*ry (?), a. [Cf. F. factionnaire, L. factionarius the head of
a company of charioteers.] Belonging to a faction; being a partisan;
taking sides. [Obs.]
Always factionary on the party of your general.
Shak.
Fac"tion*er (-?r), n. One of a faction. Abp. Bancroft.
Fac"tion*ist, n. One who promotes faction.
Fac"tious (?). a. [L. factiosus: cf. F. factieux.] 1. Given to faction;
addicted to form parties and raise dissensions, in opposition to
government or the common good; turbulent; seditious; prone to clamor
against public measures or men; -- said of persons.
Factious for the house of Lancaster.
Shak.
2. Pertaining to faction; proceeding from faction; indicating, or
characterized by, faction; -- said of acts or expressions; as, factious
quarrels.
Headlong zeal or factious fury.
Burke.
-- Fac"tious*ly, adv. -- Fac"tious- ness, n.
Fac*ti"tious (?), a. [L. factitius, fr. facere to make. See Fact, and
cf. Fetich.] Made by art, in distinction from what is produced by
nature; artificial; sham; formed by, or adapted to, an artificial or
conventional, in distinction from a natural, standard or rule; not
natural; as, factitious cinnabar or jewels; a factitious taste. --
Fac-ti"tious*ly, adv. -- Fac*ti"tious-ness, n.
He acquires a factitious propensity, he forms an incorrigible
habit, of desultory reading.
De Quincey.
Syn. -- Unnatural. -- Factitious, Unnatural. Anything is unnatural when
it departs in any way from its simple or normal state; it is factitious
when it is wrought out or wrought up by labor and effort, as, a
factitious excitement. An unnatural demand for any article of
merchandise is one which exceeds the ordinary rate of consumption; a
factitious demand is one created by active exertions for the purpose.
An unnatural alarm is one greater than the occasion requires; a
factitious alarm is one wrought up with care and effort.
Fac"ti*tive (?). a. [See Fact.] 1. Causing; causative.
2. (Gram.) Pertaining to that relation which is proper when the act, as
of a transitive verb, is not merely received by an object, but produces
some change in the object, as when we say, He made the water wine.
Sometimes the idea of activity in a verb or adjective involves in
it a reference to an effect, in the way of causality, in the active
voice on the immediate objects, and in the passive voice on the
subject of such activity. This second object is called the
factitive object.
J. W. Gibbs.
Fac"tive (?), a. Making; having power to make. [Obs.] "You are . . .
factive, not destructive." Bacon.
||Fac"to (?), adv. [L., ablative of factum deed, fact.] (Law) In fact;
||by the act or fact.
De facto. (Law) See De facto.
Fac"tor (?), n. [L. factor a doer: cf. F. facteur a factor. See Fact.]
1. (Law) One who transacts business for another; an agent; a
substitute; especially, a mercantile agent who buys and sells goods and
transacts business for others in commission; a commission merchant or
consignee. He may be a home factor or a foreign factor. He may buy and
sell in his own name, and he is intrusted with the possession and
control of the goods; and in these respects he differs from a broker.
Story. Wharton.
My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled That owes me for a
hundred tun of wine.
Marlowe.
2. A steward or bailiff of an estate. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.
3. (Math.) One of the elements or quantities which, when multiplied
together, form a product.
4. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute
to produce a result; a constituent.
The materal and dynamical factors of nutrition.
H. Spencer.
Fac"tor, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Factored (-t?rd); p. pr. & vb. n.
Factoring.] (Mach.) To resolve (a quantity) into its factors.
Fac"tor*age (?), n. [Cf. F. factorage.] The allowance given to a
factor, as a compensation for his services; -- called also a
commission.
Fac"tor*ess (?), n. A factor who is a woman. [R.]
Fac*to"ri*al (?), a. 1. Of or pertaining to a factory. Buchanan.
2. (Math.) Related to factorials.
Fac*to"ri*al, n. (Math.) (a) pl. A name given to the factors of a
continued product when the former are derivable from one and the same
function F(x) by successively imparting a constant increment or
decrement h to the independent variable. Thus the product F(x).F(x +
h).F(x + 2h) . . . F[x + (n-1)h] is called a factorial term, and its
several factors take the name of factorials. Brande & C.
(b) The product of the consecutive numbers from unity up to any given
number.
Fac"tor*ing (?), n. (Math.) The act of resolving into factors.
Fac"tor*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Factorized (-?zd); p. pr. & vb. n.
Factorizing (-?"z?ng).] (Law) (a) To give warning to; -- said of a
person in whose hands the effects of another are attached, the warning
being to the effect that he shall not pay the money or deliver the
property of the defendant in his hands to him, but appear and answer
the suit of the plaintiff. (b) To attach (the effects of a debtor) in
the hands of a third person ; to garnish. See Garnish. [Vt. & Conn.]
Fac"tor*ship, n. The business of a factor.
Fac"to*ry (?), n.; pl. Factories (-r&?;z). [Cf. F. factorerie.] 1. A
house or place where factors, or commercial agents, reside, to transact
business for their employers. "The Company's factory at Madras." Burke.
2. The body of factors in any place; as, a chaplain to a British
factory. W. Guthrie.
3. A building, or collection of buildings, appropriated to the
manufacture of goods; the place where workmen are employed in
fabricating goods, wares, or utensils; a manufactory; as, a cotton
factory.
Factory leg (Med.), a variety of bandy leg, associated with partial
dislocation of the tibia, produced in young children by working in
factories.
Fac*to"tum (fk*t"tm), n.; pl. Factotums (- tmz). [L., do everything;
facere to do + totus all : cf. F. factotum. See Fact, and Total.] A
person employed to do all kinds of work or business. B. Jonson.
Fac"tu*al (fk*t"al), a. Relating to, or containing, facts. [R.]
<! p. 537 !>
||Fac"tum (fk"tm), n.; pl. Facta (#). [L. See Fact.] 1. (Law) A man's
||own act and deed; particularly: (a) (Civil Law) Anything stated and
||made certain. (b) (Testamentary Law) The due execution of a will,
||including everything necessary to its validity.
2. (Mach.) The product. See Facient, 2.
Fac"ture (?), n. [F. facture a making, invoice, L. factura a making.
See Fact.] 1. The act or manner of making or doing anything; -- now
used of a literary, musical, or pictorial production. Bacon.
2. (Com.) An invoice or bill of parcels.
||Fac"u*lÊ (?), n. pl. [L., pl. of facula a little torch.] (Astron.)
||Groups of small shining spots on the surface of the sun which are
||brighter than the other parts of the photosphere. They are generally
||seen in the neighborhood of the dark spots, and are supposed to be
||elevated portions of the photosphere. Newcomb.
Fac"u*lar (?) a. (Astron.) Of or pertaining to the faculÊ. R. A.
Proctor.
Fac"ul*ty (?), n.; pl. Faculties (#). [F. facult&?;, L. facultas, fr.
facilis easy (cf. facul easily), fr. fecere to make. See Fact, and cf.
Facility.] 1. Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated;
capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power
or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity;
psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of
soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment
or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.
But know that in the soul Are many lesser faculties that serve
Reason as chief.
Milton.
What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite
in faculty !
Shak.
2. Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any topic that
agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament.
Hawthorne.
3. Power; prerogative or attribute of office. [R.]
This Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek.
Shak.
4. Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a
particular thing; authority; license; dispensation.
The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free from his
promise.
Fuller.
It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to
change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among
the colleges.
Evelyn.
5. A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is granted;
formerly, the graduates in any of the four departments of a university
or college (Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology), to whom was
granted the right of teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department
in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession
itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal faculty, ect.
6. (Amer. Colleges) The body of person to whom are intrusted the
government and instruction of a college or university, or of one of its
departments; the president, professors, and tutors in a college.
Dean of faculty. See under Dean. -- Faculty of advocates. (Scot.) See
under Advocate.
Syn. -- Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness; cleverness;
readiness; ability; knack.
Fac"und (?), a. [L. facundus, fr. fari to speak.] Eloquent. [Archaic]
Fa*cun"di*ous (?), a. [L. facundiosus.] Eloquement; full of words.
[Archaic]
Fa*cun"di*ty (?), n. [L. facunditas.] Eloquence; readiness of speech.
[Archaic]
Fad (?), n. [Cf. Faddle.] A hobby ; freak; whim. -- Fad"dist, n.
It is your favorite fad to draw plans.
G. Eliot.
Fad"dle (?), v. i. [Cf. Fiddle, Fiddle-faddle.] To trifle; to toy. --
v. t. To fondle; to dandle. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
Fade (?) a. [F., prob. fr. L. vapidus vapid, or possibly fr,fatuus
foolish, insipid.] Weak; insipid; tasteless; commonplace. [R.]
"Passages that are somewhat fade." Jeffrey.
His masculine taste gave him a sense of something fade and
ludicrous.
De Quincey.
Fade (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Faded; p. pr. & vb. n. Fading.] [OE.
faden, vaden, prob. fr. fade, a.; cf. Prov. D. vadden to fade, wither,
vaddigh languid, torpid. Cf. Fade, a., Vade.] 1. To become fade; to
grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither,
as a plant.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away.
Is. xxiv. 4.
2. To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or
tint; hence, to be wanting in color. "Flowers that never fade." Milton.
3. To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.
The stars shall fade away.
Addison
He makes a swanlike end, Fading in music.
Shak.
Fade, v. t. To cause to wither; to deprive of freshness or vigor; to
wear away.
No winter could his laurels fade.
Dryden.
Fad"ed (?), a. That has lost freshness, color, or brightness; grown
dim. "His faded cheek." Milton.
Where the faded moon Made a dim silver twilight.
Keats.
Fad"ed*ly, adv. In a faded manner.
A dull room fadedly furnished.
Dickens.
Fade"less, a. Not liable to fade; unfading.
Fa"der (?), n. Father. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Fadge (?), v. i. [Cf. OE. faden to flatter, and AS. f&?;gan to join,
unit, G. f¸gen, or AS. fÊgian to depict; all perh. form the same root
as E. fair. Cf. Fair, a., Fay to fit.] To fit; to suit; to agree.
They shall be made, spite of antipathy, to fadge together.
Milton.
Well, Sir, how fadges the new design ?
Wycherley.
Fadge (?), n. [Etymol. uncertain.] A small flat loaf or thick cake;
also, a fagot. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
Fad"ing (?), a. Losing freshness, color, brightness, or vigor. -- n.
Loss of color, freshness, or vigor. -- Fad"ing*ly, adv. --
Fad"ing*ness, n.
Fad"ing, n. An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song. "Fading is a
fine jig." [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
Fad"me (?), n. A fathom. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Fad"y (?), a. Faded. [R.] Shenstone.
FÊ"cal (?), a. See Fecal.
||FÊ"ces (?), n. pl. [L. faex, pl. faeces, dregs.] Excrement; ordure;
||also, settlings; sediment after infusion or distillation. [Written
||also feces.]
||FÊc"u*la (?), n. [L.] See Fecula.
Fa"Îr*y (?), n. & a. Fairy. [Archaic] Spenser.
Faf"fle (?), v. i. [Cf. Famble, Maffle.] To stammer. [Prov. Eng.]
Halliwell.
Fag (fg) n. A knot or coarse part in cloth. [Obs.]
Fag, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fagged (fgd); p. pr. & vb. n. Fagging
(fg"gng).] [Cf. LG. fakk wearied, weary, vaak slumber, drowsiness,
OFries. fai, equiv. to fch devoted to death, OS. fgi, OHG. feigi, G.
feig, feige, cowardly, Icel. feigr fated to die, AS. fge, Scot. faik,
to fail, stop, lower the price; or perh. the same word as E. flag to
droop.] 1. To become weary; to tire. [1913 Webster]
Creighton withheld his force till the Italian began to fag.
G. Mackenzie.
2. To labor to wearness; to work hard; to drudge.
Read, fag, and subdue this chapter.
Coleridge.
3. To act as a fag, or perform menial services or drudgery, for
another, as in some English schools.
To fag out, to become untwisted or frayed, as the end of a rope, or the
edge of canvas.
Fag, v. t. 1. To tire by labor; to exhaust; as, he was almost fagged
out.
2. Anything that fatigues. [R.]
It is such a fag, I came back tired to death.
Miss Austen.
Brain fag. (Med.) See Cerebropathy.
Fag"-end" (?), n. 1. An end of poorer quality, or in a spoiled
condition, as the coarser end of a web of cloth, the untwisted end of a
rope, ect.
2. The refuse or meaner part of anything.
The fag-end of business.
Collier.
Fag"ging (fg"gng), n. Laborious drudgery; esp., the acting as a drudge
for another at an English school.
Fag"ot (fg"t) n. [F., prob. aug. of L. fax, facis, torch, perh. orig.,
a bundle of sticks; cf. Gr. fa`kelos bundle, fagot. Cf. Fagotto.] 1. A
bundle of sticks, twigs, or small branches of trees, used for fuel, for
raising batteries, filling ditches, or other purposes in fortification;
a fascine. Shak.
2. A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or
other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a pile.
3. (Mus.) A bassoon. See Fagotto.
4. A person hired to take the place of another at the muster of a
company. [Eng.] Addison.
5. An old shriveled woman. [Slang, Eng.]
Fagot iron, iron, in bars or masses, manufactured from fagots. -- Fagot
vote, the vote of a person who has been constituted a voter by being
made a landholder, for party purposes. [Political cant, Eng.]
Fag"ot (?) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fagoted; p. pr. & vb. n. Fagoting.] To
make a fagot of; to bind together in a fagot or bundle; also, to
collect promiscuously. Dryden.
||Fa*got"to (?), n. [It. See Fagot.] (Mus.) The bassoon; -- so called
||from being divided into parts for ease of carriage, making, as it
||were, a small fagot.
||Fa"ham (?), n. The leaves of an orchid (Angraecum fragrans), of the
||islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, used (in France) as a substitute
||for Chinese tea.
||Fahl"band` (?), n. [G., fr. fahl dun-colored + band a band.] (Mining)
||A stratum in crystalline rock, containing metallic sulphides.
||Raymond.
{ Fahl"erz (?), Fahl"band (?), } n. [G. fahlerz; fahl dun-colored,
fallow + erz ore.] (Min.) Same as Tetrahedrite.
Fah"lun*ite (f‰"ln*t), n. [From Fahlun, a place in Sweden.] (Min.) A
hydrated silica of alumina, resulting from the alteration of iolite.
[1913 Webster]
Fah"ren*heit (?) a. [G.] Conforming to the scale used by Gabriel Daniel
Fahrenheit in the graduation of his thermometer; of or relating to
Fahrenheit's thermometric scale. -- n. The Fahrenheit thermometer or
scale.
The Fahrenheit thermometer is so graduated that the freezing point of
water is at 32 degrees above the zero of its scale, and the boiling
point at 212 degrees above. It is commonly used in the United States
and in England.
||Fa`Ô*ence" (?), n. [F., fr. Faenza, a town in Italy, the original
||place of manufacture.] Glazed earthenware; esp., that which is
||decorated in color.
Fail (fl) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Failed (fld); p. pr. & vb. n. Failing.]
[F. failir, fr. L. fallere, falsum, to deceive, akin to E. fall. See
Fail, and cf. Fallacy, False, Fault.] 1. To be wanting; to fall short;
to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence;
to cease to be furnished in the usual or expected manner, or to be
altogether cut off from supply; to be lacking; as, streams fail; crops
fail.
As the waters fail from the sea.
Job xiv. 11.
Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign.
Shak.
2. To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or
unprovided; -- used with of.
If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not be attributed to
their size.
Berke.
3. To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
When earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude they then begin to
fail.
Milton.
4. To deteriorate in respect to vigor, activity, resources, etc.; to
become weaker; as, a sick man fails.
5. To perish; to die; -- used of a person. [Obs.]
Had the king in his last sickness failed.
Shak.
6. To be found wanting with respect to an action or a duty to be
performed, a result to be secured, etc.; to miss; not to fulfill
expectation.
Take heed now that ye fail not to do this.
Ezra iv. 22.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
Shak.
7. To come short of a result or object aimed at or desired ; to be
baffled or frusrated.
Our envious foe hath failed.
Milton.
8. To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I
fail not.
Milton.
9. To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable
to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become
bankrupt or insolvent.
Fail (?), v. t. 1. To be wanting to ; to be insufficient for; to
disappoint; to desert.
There shall not fail thee a man on the throne.
1 Kings ii. 4.
2. To miss of attaining; to lose. [R.]
Though that seat of earthly bliss be failed.
Milton.
Fail, n. [OF. faille, from failir. See Fail, v. i.] 1. Miscarriage;
failure; deficiency; fault; -- mostly superseded by failure or failing,
except in the phrase without fail. "His highness' fail of issue." Shak.
2. Death; decease. [Obs.] Shak.
Fail"ance (?), n. [Of. faillance, fr. faillir.] Fault; failure;
omission. [Obs.] Bp. Fell.
Fail"ing, n. 1. A failing short; a becoming deficient; failure;
deficiency; imperfection; weakness; lapse; fault; infirmity; as, a
mental failing.
And ever in her mind she cast about For that unnoticed failing in
herself.
Tennyson.
2. The act of becoming insolvent of bankrupt.
Syn. -- See Fault.
||Faille (?), n. [F.] A soft silk, heavier than a foulard and not
||glossy.
Fail"ure (?), n. [From Fail.] 1. Cessation of supply, or total defect;
a failing; deficiency; as, failure of rain; failure of crops.
2. Omission; nonperformance; as, the failure to keep a promise.
3. Want of success; the state of having failed.
4. Decay, or defect from decay; deterioration; as, the failure of
memory or of sight.
5. A becoming insolvent; bankruptcy; suspension of payment; as, failure
in business.
6. A failing; a slight fault. [Obs.] Johnson.
Fain (?), a. [OE. fain, fagen, AS. fÊgen; akin to OS. fagan, Icel.
faginn glad; AS. fÊgnian to rejoice, OS. fagann, Icel. fagna, Goth.
faginn, cf. Goth. fahds joy; and fr. the same root as E. fair. Srr
Fair, a., and cf. Fawn to court favor.] 1. Well-pleased; glad; apt;
wont; fond; inclined.
Men and birds are fain of climbing high.
Shak.
To a busy man, temptation is fainto climb up together with his
business.
Jer. Taylor.
2. Satisfied; contented; also, constrained. Shak.
The learned Castalio was fain to make trechers at Basle to keep
himself from starving.
Locke.
Fain, adv. With joy; gladly; -- with wold.
He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine
did eat.
Luke xv. 16.
Fain Would I woo her, yet I dare not.
Shak.
Fain, v. t. & i. To be glad ; to wish or desire. [Obs.]
Whoso fair thing does fain to see.
Spencer.
||Fai`nÈ`ant" (f`n`‰N"), a. [F.; fait he does + nÈant nothing.] Doing
||nothing; shiftless. -- n. A do-nothing; an idle fellow; a sluggard.
||Sir W. Scott.
Faint (fnt), a. [Compar. Fainter (-r); superl. Faintest.] [OE. feint,
faint, false, faint, F. feint, p. p. of feindre to feign, suppose,
hesitate. See Feign, and cf. Feint.] 1. Lacking strength; weak;
languid; inclined to swoon; as, faint with fatigue, hunger, or thirst.
2. Wanting in courage, spirit, or energy; timorous; cowardly; dejected;
depressed; as, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady." Old Proverb.
3. Lacking distinctness; hardly perceptible; striking the senses
feebly; not bright, or loud, or sharp, or forcible; weak; as, a faint
color, or sound.
4. Performed, done, or acted, in a weak or feeble manner; not
exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy; slight; as, faint efforts; faint
resistance.
The faint prosecution of the war.
Sir J. Davies.
Faint, n. The act of fainting, or the state of one who has fainted; a
swoon. [R.] See Fainting, n.
The saint, Who propped the Virgin in her faint.
Sir W. Scott.
Faint, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fainted; p. pr. & vb. n. Fainting.] 1. To
become weak or wanting in vigor; to grow feeble; to lose strength and
color, and the control of the bodily or mental functions; to swoon; --
sometimes with away. See Fainting, n.
Hearing the honor intended her, she fainted away.
Guardian.
If I send them away fasting . . . they will faint by the way.
Mark viii. 8.
<! p. 538 !>
2. To sink into dejection; to lose courage or spirit; to become
depressed or despondent.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
Prov. xxiv. 10.
3. To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.
Pope.
Faint (?), v. t. To cause to faint or become dispirited; to depress; to
weaken. [Obs.]
It faints me to think what follows.
Shak.
Faint"-heart`ed (?), a. Wanting in courage; depressed by fear; easily
discouraged or frightened; cowardly; timorous; dejected.
Fear not, neither be faint- hearted.
Is. vii. 4.
-- Faint"-heart`ed*ly, adv. -- Faint"-heart`ed*ness, n.
Faint"ing (?), n. Syncope, or loss of consciousness owing to a sudden
arrest of the blood supply to the brain, the face becoming pallid, the
respiration feeble, and the heat's beat weak.
Fainting fit, a fainting or swoon; syncope. [Colloq.]
Faint"ish, a. Slightly faint; somewhat faint. -- Faint"ish*ness, n.
Faint"ling (?), a. Timorous; feeble-minded. [Obs.] "A fainting, silly
creature." Arbuthnot.
Faint"ly, adv. In a faint, weak, or timidmanner.
Faint"ness, n. 1. The state of being faint; loss of strength, or of
consciousness, and self-control.
2. Want of vigor or energy. Spenser.
3. Feebleness, as of color or light; lack of distinctness; as,
faintness of description.
4. Faint-heartedness; timorousness; dejection.
I will send a faintness into their hearts.
Lev. xxvi. 36.
Faints (?), n. pl. The impure spirit which comes over first and last in
the distillation of whisky; -- the former being called the strong
faints, and the latter, which is much more abundant, the weak faints.
This crude spirit is much impregnated with fusel oil. Ure.
Faint"y (?), a. Feeble; languid. [R.] Dryden.
Fair (f‚r), a. [Compar. Fairer (?); superl. Fairest.] [OE. fair, fayer,
fager, AS. fÊger; akin to OS. & OHG. fagar, Icel. fagr, Sw. fager, Dan.
faver, Goth. fagrs fit, also to E. fay, G. f¸gen, to fit. fegen to
sweep, cleanse, and prob. also to E. fang, peace, pact, Cf. Fang, Fain,
Fay to fit.] 1. Free from spots, specks, dirt, or imperfection;
unblemished; clean; pure.
A fair white linen cloth.
Book of Common Prayer.
2. Pleasing to the eye; handsome; beautiful.
Who can not see many a fair French city, for one fair French made.
Shak.
3. Without a dark hue; light; clear; as, a fair skin.
The northern people large and fair- complexioned.
Sir M. Hale.
4. Not overcast; cloudless; clear; pleasant; propitious; favorable; --
said of the sky, weather, or wind, etc.; as, a fair sky; a fair day.
You wish fair winds may waft him over.
Prior.
5. Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unincumbered; open;
direct; -- said of a road, passage, etc.; as, a fair mark; in fair
sight; a fair view.
The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to
have enlarged.
Sir W. Raleigh.
6. (Shipbuilding) Without sudden change of direction or curvature;
smooth; flowing; -- said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces,
water lines, and other lines.
7. Characterized by frankness, honesty, impartiality, or candor; open;
upright; free from suspicion or bias; equitable; just; -- said of
persons, character, or conduct; as, a fair man; fair dealing; a fair
statement. "I would call it fair play." Shak.
8. Pleasing; favorable; inspiring hope and confidence; -- said of
words, promises, etc.
When fair words and good counsel will not prevail on us, we must be
frighted into our duty.
L' Estrange.
9. Distinct; legible; as, fair handwriting.
10. Free from any marked characteristic; average; middling; so-so; as,
a fair specimen.
The news is very fair and good, my lord.
Shak.
Fair ball. (Baseball) (a) A ball passing over the home base at the
height called for by the batsman, and delivered by the pitcher while
wholly within the lines of his position and facing the batsman. (b) A
batted ball that falls inside the foul lines; -- called also a fair
hit. -- Fair maid. (Zoˆl.) (a) The European pilchard (Clupea
pilchardus) when dried. (b) The southern scup (Stenotomus Gardeni).
[Virginia] -- Fair one, a handsome woman; a beauty, -- Fair play,
equitable or impartial treatment; a fair or equal chance; justice. --
From fair to middling, passable; tolerable. [Colloq.] -- The fair sex,
the female sex.
Syn. -- Candid; open; frank; ingenuous; clear; honest; equitable;
impartial; reasonable. See Candid.
Fair, adv. Clearly; openly; frankly; civilly; honestly; favorably;
auspiciously; agreeably.
Fair and square, justly; honestly; equitably; impartially. [Colloq.] --
To bid fair. See under Bid. -- To speak fair, to address with courtesy
and frankness. [Archaic]
Fair, n. 1. Fairness, beauty. [Obs.] Shak.
2. A fair woman; a sweetheart.
I have found out a gift for my fair.
Shenstone.
3. Good fortune; good luck.
Now fair befall thee !
Shak.
The fair, anything beautiful; women, collectively. "For slander's mark
was ever yet the fair." Shak.
Fair, v. t. 1. To make fair or beautiful. [Obs.]
Fairing the foul.
Shak.
2. (Shipbuilding) To make smooth and flowing, as a vessel's lines.
Fair, n. [OE. feire, OF. feire, F. foire, fr. L. fariae, pl., days of
rest, holidays, festivals, akin to festus festal. See Feast.] 1. A
gathering of buyers and sellers, assembled at a particular place with
their merchandise at a stated or regular season, or by special
appointment, for trade.
2. A festival, and sale of fancy articles. erc., usually for some
charitable object; as, a Grand Army fair.
3. A competitive exhibition of wares, farm products, etc., not
primarily for purposes of sale; as, the Mechanics' fair; an
agricultural fair.
After the fair, Too late. [Colloq.]
Fair"-haired` (?), a. Having fair or light-colored hair.
Fair"hood (?), n. Fairness; beauty. [Obs.] Foxe.
Fair"i*ly (?), adv. In the manner of a fairy.
Numerous as shadows haunting fairily The brain.
Keats.
Fair"ing, n. A present; originally, one given or purchased at a fair.
Gay.
Fairing box, a box receiving savings or small sums of money. Hannah
More.
Fair"ish, a. Tolerably fair. [Colloq.] W. D. Howells.
Fair"-lead`er (?), n. (Naut.) A block, or ring, serving as a guide for
the running rigging or for any rope.
Fair"ly, adv. 1. In a fair manner; clearly; openly; plainly; fully;
distinctly; frankly.
Even the nature of Mr. Dimmesdale's disease had never fairly been
revealed to him.
Hawthorne.
2. Favorably; auspiciously; commodiously; as, a town fairly situated
for foreign trade.
3. Honestly; properly.
Such means of comfort or even luxury, as lay fairly within their
grasp.
Hawthorne.
4. Softly; quietly; gently. [Obs.] Milton.
Fair"-mind`ed (?), a. Unprejudiced; just; judicial; honest. -- Fair"-
mind`ed*ness, n.
Fair"-na`tured (?), a. Well- disposed. "A fair-natured prince." Ford.
Fair"ness, n. The state of being fair, or free form spots or stains, as
of the skin; honesty, as of dealing; candor, as of an argument, etc.
Fair"-spo`ken (?), a. Using fair speech, or uttered with fairness;
bland; civil; courteous; plausible. "A marvelous fair-spoken man."
Hooker.
Fair"way` (?), n. The navigable part of a river, bay, etc., through
which vessels enter or depart; the part of a harbor or channel ehich is
kept open and unobstructed for the passage of vessels. Totten.
Fair"-weath`er (?), a. 1. Made or done in pleasant weather, or in
circumstances involving but little exposure or sacrifice; as, a
fair-weather voyage. Pope.
2. Appearing only when times or circumstances are prosperous; as, a
fair-weather friend.
Fair-weather sailor, a make-believe or inexperienced sailor; -- the
nautical equivalent of carpet knight.
Fair"-world` (?) n. State of prosperity. [Obs.]
They think it was never fair-world with them since.
Milton.
Fair"y (?), n.; pl. Fairies (#). [OE. fairie, faierie, enchantment,
fairy folk, fairy, OF. faerie enchantment, F. fÈer, fr. LL. Fata one of
the goddesses of fate. See Fate, and cf. Fay a fairy.] [Written also
faÎry.] 1. Enchantment; illusion. [Obs.] Chaucer.
The God of her has made an end, And fro this worlde's fairy Hath
taken her into company.
Gower.
2. The country of the fays; land of illusions. [Obs.]
He [Arthur] is a king y-crowned in Fairy.
Lydgate.
3. An imaginary supernatural being or spirit, supposed to assume a
human form (usually diminutive), either male or female, and to meddle
for good or evil in the affairs of mankind; a fay. See Elf, and Demon.
The fourth kind of spirit [is] called the Fairy.
K. James.
And now about the caldron sing, Like elves and fairies in a ring.
Shak.
5. An enchantress. [Obs.] Shak.
Fairy of the mine, an imaginary being supposed to inhabit mines, etc.
German folklore tells of two species; one fierce and malevolent, the
other gentle, See Kobold.
No goblin or swart fairy of the mine Hath hurtful power over true
virginity.
Milton.
Fair"y, a. 1. Of or pertaining to fairies.
2. Given by fairies; as, fairy money. Dryden.
Fairy bird (Zoˆl.), the Euoropean little tern (Sterna minuta); --
called also sea swallow, and hooded tern. -- Fairy bluebird. (Zoˆl.)
See under Bluebird. -- Fairy martin (Zoˆl.), a European swallow
(Hirrundo ariel) that builds flask-shaped nests of mud on overhanging
cliffs. -- Fairy rings or circles, the circles formed in grassy lawns
by certain fungi (as Marasmius Oreades), formerly supposed to be caused
by fairies in their midnight dances. -- Fairy shrimp (Zoˆl.), a
European fresh-water phyllopod crustacean (Chirocephalus diaphanus); --
so called from its delicate colors, transparency, and graceful motions.
The name is sometimes applied to similar American species. -- Fairy
stone (Paleon.), an echinite.
Fair"y*land` (?) n. The imaginary land or abode of fairies.
Fair"y*like` (?), a. Resembling a fairy, or what is made or done be
fairies; as, fairylike music.
Faith (fth), n. [OE. feith, fayth, fay, OF. feid, feit, fei, F. foi,
fr. L. fides; akin to fidere to trust, Gr. pei`qein to persuade. The
ending th is perhaps due to the influence of such words as truth,
health, wealth. See Bid, Bide, and cf. Confide, Defy, Fealty.] 1.
Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by
another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity;
reliance on testimony.
2. The assent of the mind to the statement or proposition of another,
on the ground of the manifest truth of what he utters; firm and earnest
belief, on probable evidence of any kind, especially in regard to
important moral truth.
Faith, that is, fidelity, -- the fealty of the finite will and
understanding to the reason.
Coleridge.
3. (Theol.) (a) The belief in the historic truthfulness of the
Scripture narrative, and the supernatural origin of its teachings,
sometimes called historical and speculative faith. (b) The belief in
the facts and truth of the Scriptures, with a practical love of them;
especially, that confiding and affectionate belief in the person and
work of Christ, which affects the character and life, and makes a man a
true Christian, -- called a practical, evangelical, or saving faith.
Without faith it is impossible to please him [God].
Heb. xi. 6.
The faith of the gospel is that emotion of the mind which is called
"trust" or "confidence" exercised toward the moral character of
God, and particularly of the Savior.
Dr. T. Dwight.
Faith is an affectionate, practical confidence in the testimony of
God.
J. Hawes.
4. That which is believed on any subject, whether in science, politics,
or religion; especially (Theol.), a system of religious belief of any
kind; as, the Jewish or Mohammedan faith; and especially, the system of
truth taught by Christ; as, the Christian faith; also, the creed or
belief of a Christian society or church.
Which to believe of her, Must be a faith that reason without
miracle Could never plant in me.
Shak.
Now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.
Gal. i. 23.
5. Fidelity to one's promises, or allegiance to duty, or to a person
honored and beloved; loyalty.
Children in whom is no faith.
Deut. xxvii. 20.
Whose failing, while her faith to me remains, I should conceal.
Milton.
6. Word or honor pledged; promise given; fidelity; as, he violated his
faith.
For you alone I broke me faith with injured Palamon.
Dryden.
7. Credibility or truth. [R.]
The faith of the foregoing narrative.
Mitford.
Act of faith. See Auto-da- fÈ. -- Breach of faith, Confession of faith,
etc. See under Breach, Confession, etc. -- Faith cure, a method or
practice of treating diseases by prayer and the exercise of faith in
God. -- In good faith, with perfect sincerity.
Faith (?), interj. By my faith; in truth; verily.
Faithed (?), a. Having faith or a faith; honest; sincere. [Obs.] "Make
thy words faithed." Shak.
Faith"ful (?), a. 1. Full of faith, or having faith; disposed to
believe, especially in the declarations and promises of God.
You are not faithful, sir.
B. Jonson.
2. Firm in adherence to promises, oaths, contracts, treaties, or other
engagements.
The faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that
love him.
Deut. vii. 9.
3. True and constant in affection or allegiance to a person to whom one
is bound by a vow, by ties of love, gratitude, or honor, as to a
husband, a prince, a friend; firm in the observance of duty; loyal; of
true fidelity; as, a faithful husband or servant.
So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found, Among the faithless,
faithful only he.
Milton.
4. Worthy of confidence and belief; conformable to truth ot fact;
exact; accurate; as, a faithful narrative or representation.
It is a faithful saying.
2 Tim. ii. 11.
The Faithful, the adherents of any system of religious belief; esp.
used as an epithet of the followers of Mohammed.
Syn. -- Trusty; honest; upright; sincere; veracious; trustworthy.
-- Faith"ful*ly, adv. - Faith"ful*ness, n.
Faith"less, a. 1. Not believing; not giving credit.
Be not faithless, but believing.
John xx. 27.
2. Not believing on God or religion; specifically, not believing in the
Christian religion. Shak.
3. Not observant of promises or covenants.
4. Not true to allegiance, duty, or vows; perfidious; trecherous;
disloyal; not of true fidelity; inconstant, as a husband or a wife.
A most unnatural and faithless service.
Shak.
5. Serving to disappoint or deceive; delusive; unsatisfying. "Yonder
faithless phantom." Goldsmith.
-- Faith"less*ly, adv.Faith"less*ness, n.
Fai"tour (?), n. [OF. faitor a doer, L. factor. See Factor.] A doer or
actor; particularly, an evil doer; a scoundrel. [Obs.]
Lo! faitour, there thy meed unto thee take.
Spenser.
Fake (?), n. [Cf. Scot. faik fold, stratum of stone, AS. fÊc space,
interval, G. fach compartment, partition, row, and E. fay to fit.]
(Naut.) One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies
in a coil; a single turn or coil.
Fake, v. t. (Naut.) To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding
alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or
figure of eight form,, to prevent twisting when running out.
Faking box, a box in which a long rope is faked; used in the
life-saving service for a line attached to a shot.
Fake, v. t. [Cf. Gael. faigh to get, acquire, reach, or OD. facken to
catch or gripe.] [Slang in all its senses.] 1. To cheat; to swindle; to
steal; to rob.
2. To make; to construct; to do.
3. To manipulate fraudulently, so as to make an object appear better or
other than it really is; as, to fake a bulldog, by burning his upper
lip and thus artificially shortening it.
Fake, n. A trick; a swindle. [Slang]
Fa"kir (?), n. [Ar. faqr poor.] An Oriental religious ascetic or
begging monk. [Written also faquir anf fakeer.]
||Fa"la*na"ka (?), n. [Native name.] (Zoˆl.) A viverrine mammal of
||Madagascar (Eupleres Goudotii), allied to the civet; -- called also
||Falanouc.
Fal*cade" (fl*kd"), n. [F., ultimately fr. L. falx, falcis, a sickle or
scythe.] (Man.) The action of a horse, when he throws himself on his
haunches two or three times, bending himself, as it were, in very quick
curvets. Harris.
<! p. 539 !>
{ Fal"cate (?), Fal"ca*ted (?), } a. [L. falcatus, fr. falx, falcis, a
sickle or scythe.] Hooked or bent like a sickle; as, a falcate leaf; a
falcate claw; -- said also of the moon, or a planet, when horned or
crescent- formed.
Fal*ca"tion (?), n. The state of being falcate; a bend in the form of a
sickle. Sir T. Browne.
Fal"cer (?), n. [From L. falx, falcis, a sickle.] (Zoˆl.) One of the
mandibles of a spider.
Fal"chion (?), n. [OE. fauchon, OF. fauchon, LL. f‰lcio, fr. L. falx,
falcis, a sickle, cf. Gr. &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; a ship's rib,
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; bandy-legged; perh, akin to E. falcon; cf. It.
falcione. Cf. Defalcation.] 1. A broad-bladed sword, slightly curved,
shorter and lighter than the ordinary sword; -- used in the Middle
Ages.
2. A name given generally and poetically to a sword, especially to the
swords of Oriental and fabled warriors.
Fal*cid"i*an (?), a. [L. Falcidius.] Of or pertaining to Publius
Falcidius, a Roman tribune.
Falcidian law (Civil Law), a law by which a testator was obliged to
leave at least a fourth of his estate to the heir. Burrill.
Fal"ci*form (?), a. [L. falx, falcis, a sickle + -form: cf. F.
falciforme.] Having the shape of a scithe or sickle; resembling a
reaping hook; as, the falciform ligatment of the liver.
Fal"con (?), n. [OE. faucon, faucoun, OF. faucon, falcon, &?;. faucon,
fr. LL. falco, perh. from L. falx, falcis, a sickle or scythe, and
named from its curving talons. Cf. Falchion.] 1. (Zoˆl.) (a) One of a
family (FalconidÊ) of raptorial birds, characterized by a short, hooked
beak, strong claws, and powerful flight. (b) Any species of the genus
Falco, distinguished by having a toothlike lobe on the upper mandible;
especially, one of this genus trained to the pursuit of other birds, or
game.
In the language of falconry, the female peregrine (Falco
peregrinus) is exclusively called the falcon.
Yarrell.
2. (Gun.) An ancient form of cannon.
Chanting falcon. (Zoˆl.) See under Chanting.
Fal"con*er (?), n. [OE. fauconer, OF. falconier, fauconier, F.
fauconnier. See Falcon.] A person who breeds or trains hawks for taking
birds or game; one who follows the sport of fowling with hawks.
Johnson.
Fal"co*net (?), n. [Dim. of falcon: cf. F. fauconneau, LL. falconeta,
properly, a young falcon.] 1. One of the smaller cannon used in the
15th century and later.
2. (Zoˆl.) (a) One of several very small Asiatic falcons of the genus
Microhierax. (b) One of a group of Australian birds of the genus
Falcunculus, resembling shrikes and titmice.
Fal"con*gen`til (?), n. [F. faucon- gentil. See Falcon, and Genteel.]
(Zoˆl.) The female or young of the goshawk (Astur palumbarius).
Fal"co*nine (?), a. (Zoˆl.) Like a falcon or hawk; belonging to the
FalconidÊ
Fal"con*ry (?), n. [Cf. F. fauconnerie. See Falcon.] 1. The art of
training falcons or hawks to pursue and attack wild fowl or game.
2. The sport of taking wild fowl or game by means of falcons or hawks.
||Fal"cu*la (?), n. [L., a small sickle, a billhook.] (Zoˆl.) A curved
||and sharp- pointed claw.
Fal"cu*late (?), a. (Zoˆl.) Curved and sharppointed, like a falcula, or
claw of a falcon.
Fald"age (?), n. [LL. faldagium, fr. AS. fald, E. fold. Cf. Foldage.]
(O. Eng. Law) A privilege of setting up, and moving about, folds for
sheep, in any fields within manors, in order to manure them; -- often
reserved to himself by the lord of the manor. Spelman.
Fald"fee` (?), n. [AS. fald (E. fold) + E. fee. See Faldage.] (O. Eng.
Law) A fee or rent paid by a tenant for the privilege of faldage on his
own ground. Blount.
Fald"ing, n. A frieze or rough- napped cloth. [Obs.]
Fal"dis*to*ry (?), n. [LL. faldistorium, faldestorium, from OHG.
faldstuol; faldan, faltan, to fold (G. falten) + stuol stool. So called
because it could be folded or laid together. See Fold, and Stool, and
cf. Faldstool, Fauteuil.] The throne or seat of a bishop within the
chancel. [Obs.]
Fald"stool` (?), n. [See Faldistory.] A folding stool, or portable
seat, made to fold up in the manner of a camo stool. It was formerly
placed in the choir for a bishop, when he offciated in any but his own
cathedral church. Fairholt.
In the modern practice of the Church of England, the term faldstool is
given to the reading desk from which the litany is read. This esage is
a relic of the ancient use of a lectern folding like a camp stool.
Fa*ler"ni*an (?), a. Of or pertaining to Mount Falernus, in Italy; as,
Falernianwine.
Falk (fk), n. (Zoˆl.) The razorbill. [Written also falc, and faik.]
[Prov. Eng.]
Fall (fl), v. i. [imp. Fell (fl); p. p. Fallen (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Falling.] [AS. feallan; akin to D. vallen, OS. & OHG. fallan, G.
fallen, Icel. Falla, Sw. falla, Dan. falde, Lith. pulti, L. fallere to
deceive, Gr. sfa`llein to cause to fall, Skr. sphal, sphul, to tremble.
Cf. Fail, Fell, v. t., to cause to fall.] 1. To Descend, either
suddenly or gradually; particularly, to descend by the force of
gravity; to drop; to sink; as, the apple falls; the tide falls; the
mercury falls in the barometer.
I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Luke x. 18.
2. To cease to be erect; to take suddenly a recumbent posture; to
become prostrate; to drop; as, a child totters and falls; a tree falls;
a worshiper falls on his knees.
I fell at his feet to worship him.
Rev. xix. 10.
3. To find a final outlet; to discharge its waters; to empty; -- with
into; as, the river Rhone falls into the Mediterranean.
4. To become prostrate and dead; to die; especially, to die by
violence, as in battle.
A thousand shall fall at thy side.
Ps. xci. 7.
He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.
Byron.
5. To cease to be active or strong; to die away; to lose strength; to
subside; to become less intense; as, the wind falls.
6. To issue forth into life; to be brought forth; -- said of the young
of certain animals. Shak.
7. To decline in power, glory, wealth, or importance; to become
insignificant; to lose rank or position; to decline in weight, value,
price etc.; to become less; as, the price falls; stocks fell two
points.
I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now To be thy lord and master.
Shak.
The greatness of these Irish lords suddenly fell and vanished.
Sir J. Davies.
8. To be overthrown or captured; to be destroyed.
Heaven and earth will witness, If Rome must fall, that we are
innocent.
Addison.
9. To descend in character or reputation; to become degraded; to sink
into vice, error, or sin; to depart from the faith; to apostatize; to
sin.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief.
Heb. iv. 11.
10. To become insnared or embarrassed; to be entrapped; to be worse off
than before; as, to fall into error; to fall into difficulties.
11. To assume a look of shame or disappointment; to become or appear
dejected; -- said of the countenance.
Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Gen. iv. 5.
I have observed of late thy looks are fallen.
Addison.
12. To sink; to languish; to become feeble or faint; as, our spirits
rise and fall with our fortunes.
13. To pass somewhat suddenly, and passively, into a new state of body
or mind; to become; as, to fall asleep; to fall into a passion; to fall
in love; to fall into temptation.
14. To happen; to to come to pass; to light; to befall; to issue; to
terminate.
The Romans fell on this model by chance.
Swift.
Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall.
Ruth. iii. 18.
They do not make laws, they fall into customs.
H. Spencer.
15. To come; to occur; to arrive.
The vernal equinox, which at the Nicene Council fell on the 21st of
March, falls now [1694] about ten days sooner.
Holder.
16. To begin with haste, ardor, or vehemence; to rush or hurry; as,
they fell to blows.
They now no longer doubted, but fell to work heart and soul.
Jowett (Thucyd. ).
17. To pass or be transferred by chance, lot, distribution,
inheritance, or otherwise; as, the estate fell to his brother; the
kingdom fell into the hands of his rivals.
18. To belong or appertain.
If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and
you'll forget them all.
Pope.
19. To be dropped or uttered carelessly; as, an unguarded expression
fell from his lips; not a murmur fell from him.
To fall abroad of (Naut.), to strike against; -- applied to one vessel
coming into collision with another. -- To fall among, to come among
accidentally or unexpectedly. -- To fall astern (Naut.), to move or be
driven backward; to be left behind; as, a ship falls astern by the
force of a current, or when outsailed by another. -- To fall away. (a)
To lose flesh; to become lean or emaciated; to pine. (b) To renounce or
desert allegiance; to revolt or rebel. (c) To renounce or desert the
faith; to apostatize. "These . . . for a while believe, and in time of
temptation fall away." Luke viii. 13. (d) To perish; to vanish; to be
lost. "How . . . can the soul . . . fall away into nothing?" Addison.
(e) To decline gradually; to fade; to languish, or become faint. "One
color falls away by just degrees, and another rises insensibly."
Addison. -- To fall back. (a) To recede or retreat; to give way. (b) To
fail of performing a promise or purpose; not to fulfill. -- To fall
back upon. (a) (Mil.) To retreat for safety to (a stronger position in
the rear, as to a fort or a supporting body of troops). (b) To have
recourse to (a reserved fund, or some available expedient or support).
-- To fall calm, to cease to blow; to become calm. -- To fall down. (a)
To prostrate one's self in worship. "All kings shall fall down before
him." Ps. lxxii. 11. (b) To sink; to come to the ground. "Down fell the
beauteous youth." Dryden. (c) To bend or bow, as a suppliant. (d)
(Naut.) To sail or drift toward the mouth of a river or other outlet.
-- To fall flat, to produce no response or result; to fail of the
intended effect; as, his speech fell flat. -- To fall foul of. (a)
(Naut.) To have a collision with; to become entangled with (b) To
attack; to make an assault upon. -- To fall from, to recede or depart
from; not to adhere to; as, to fall from an agreement or engagement; to
fall from allegiance or duty. -- To fall from grace (M. E. Ch.), to
sin; to withdraw from the faith. -- To fall home (Ship Carp.), to curve
inward; -- said of the timbers or upper parts of a ship's side which
are much within a perpendicular. -- To fall in. (a) To sink inwards;
as, the roof fell in. (b) (Mil.) To take one's proper or assigned place
in line; as, to fall in on the right. (c) To come to an end; to
terminate; to lapse; as, on the death of Mr. B., the annuuity, which he
had so long received, fell in. (d) To become operative. "The reversion,
to which he had been nominated twenty years before, fell in." Macaulay.
-- To fall into one's hands, to pass, often suddenly or unexpectedly,
into one's ownership or control; as, to spike cannon when they are
likely to fall into the hands of the enemy. -- To fall in with. (a) To
meet with accidentally; as, to fall in with a friend. (b) (Naut.) To
meet, as a ship; also, to discover or come near, as land. (c) To concur
with; to agree with; as, the measure falls in with popular opinion. (d)
To comply; to yield to. "You will find it difficult to persuade learned
men to fall in with your projects." Addison. -- To fall off. (a) To
drop; as, fruits fall off when ripe. (b) To withdraw; to separate; to
become detached; as, friends fall off in adversity. "Love cools,
friendship falls off, brothers divide." Shak. (c) To perish; to die
away; as, words fall off by disuse. (d) To apostatize; to forsake; to
withdraw from the faith, or from allegiance or duty.
Those captive tribes . . . fell off From God to worship calves.
Milton.
(e) To forsake; to abandon; as, his customers fell off. (f) To
depreciate; to change for the worse; to deteriorate; to become less
valuable, abundant, or interesting; as, a falling off in the wheat
crop; the magazine or the review falls off. "O Hamlet, what a falling
off was there!" Shak. (g) (Naut.) To deviate or trend to the leeward of
the point to which the head of the ship was before directed; to fall to
leeward. -- To fall on. (a) To meet with; to light upon; as, we have
fallen on evil days. (b) To begin suddenly and eagerly. "Fall on, and
try the appetite to eat." Dryden. (c) To begin an attack; to assault;
to assail. "Fall on, fall on, and hear him not." Dryden. (d) To drop
on; to descend on. -- To fall out. (a) To quarrel; to begin to contend.
A soul exasperated in ills falls out With everything, its friend,
itself.
Addison.
(b) To happen; to befall; to chance. "There fell out a bloody quarrel
betwixt the frogs and the mice." L'Estrange. (c) (Mil.) To leave the
ranks, as a soldier. -- To fall over. (a) To revolt; to desert from one
side to another. (b) To fall beyond. Shak. -- To fall short, to be
deficient; as, the corn falls short; they all fall short in duty. -- To
fall through, to come to nothing; to fail; as, the engageent has fallen
through. - - To fall to, to begin. "Fall to, with eager joy, on homely
food." Dryden. -- To fall under. (a) To come under, or within the
limits of; to be subjected to; as, they fell under the jurisdiction of
the emperor. (b) To come under; to become the subject of; as, this
point did not fall under the cognizance or deliberations of the court;
these things do not fall under human sight or observation. (c) To come
within; to be ranged or reckoned with; to be subordinate to in the way
of classification; as, these substances fall under a different class or
order. -- To fall upon. (a) To attack. [See To fall on.] (b) To
attempt; to have recourse to. "I do not intend to fall upon nice
disquisitions." Holder. (c) To rush against.
Fall primarily denotes descending motion, either in a perpendicular or
inclined direction, and, in most of its applications, implies,
literally or figuratively, velocity, haste, suddenness, or violence.
Its use is so various, and so mush diversified by modifying words, that
it is not easy to enumerate its senses in all its applications.
Fall (?), v. t. 1. To let fall; to drop. [Obs.]
For every tear he falls, a Trojan bleeds.
Shak.
2. To sink; to depress; as, to fall the voice. [Obs.]
3. To diminish; to lessen or lower. [Obs.]
Upon lessening interest to four per cent, you fall the price of
your native commodities.
Locke.
4. To bring forth; as, to fall lambs. [R.] Shak.
5. To fell; to cut down; as, to fall a tree. [Prov. Eng. & Local, U.S.]
Fall, n. 1. The act of falling; a dropping or descending be the force
of gravity; descent; as, a fall from a horse, or from the yard of ship.
2. The act of dropping or tumbling from an erect posture; as, he was
walking on ice, and had a fall.
3. Death; destruction; overthrow; ruin.
They thy fall conspire.
Denham.
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Prov. xvi. 18.
4. Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; termination of
greatness, power, or dominion; ruin; overthrow; as, the fall of the
Roman empire.
Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall.
Pope.
5. The surrender of a besieged fortress or town ; as, the fall of
Sebastopol.
6. Diminution or decrease in price or value; depreciation; as, the fall
of prices; the fall of rents.
7. A sinking of tone; cadence; as, the fall of the voice at the close
of a sentence.
8. Declivity; the descent of land or a hill; a slope.
9. Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a
precipice or steep; -- usually in the plural, sometimes in the
singular; as, the falls of Niagara.
10. The discharge of a river or current of water into the ocean, or
into a lake or pond; as, the fall of the Po into the Gulf of Venice.
Addison.
11. Extent of descent; the distance which anything falls; as, the water
of a stream has a fall of five feet.
12. The season when leaves fall from trees; autumn.
What crowds of patients the town doctor kills, Or how, last fall,
he raised the weekly bills.
Dryden.
13. That which falls; a falling; as, a fall of rain; a heavy fall of
snow.
14. The act of felling or cutting down. "The fall of timber." Johnson.
15. Lapse or declension from innocence or goodness. Specifically: The
first apostasy; the act of our first parents in eating the forbidden
fruit; also, the apostasy of the rebellious angels.
16. Formerly, a kind of ruff or band for the neck; a falling band; a
faule. B. Jonson.
17. That part (as one of the ropes) of a tackle to which the power is
applied in hoisting.
Fall herring (Zoˆl.), a herring of the Atlantic (Clupea mediocris); --
also called tailor herring, and hickory shad. -- To try a fall, to try
a bout at wrestling. Shak.
Fal*la"cious (?), a. [L. fallaciosus, fr. fallacia: cf. F. fallacieux.
See Fallacy.] Embodying or pertaining to a fallacy; illogical; fitted
to deceive; misleading; delusive; as, fallacious arguments or
reasoning. -- Fal*la"cious*ly, adv. - Fal*la"cious*ness, n.
<! p. 540 !>
Fal"la*cy (fl"l*s), n.; pl. Fallacies (- sz). [OE. fallace, fallas,
deception, F. fallace, fr. L. fallacia, fr. fallax deceitful,
deceptive, fr. fallere to deceive. See Fail.] 1. Deceptive or false
appearance; deceitfulness; that which misleads the eye or the mind;
deception.
Winning by conquest what the first man lost, By fallacy surprised.
Milton.
2. (Logic) An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be
decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a sophism.
Syn. -- Deception; deceit; mistake. -- Fallacy, Sophistry. A fallacy is
an argument which professes to be decisive, but in reality is not;
sophistry is also false reasoning, but of so specious and subtle a kind
as to render it difficult to expose its fallacy. Many fallacies are
obvious, but the evil of sophistry lies in its consummate art. "Men are
apt to suffer their minds to be misled by fallacies which gratify their
passions. Many persons have obscured and confounded the nature of
things by their wretched sophistry; though an act be never so sinful,
they will strip it of its guilt." South.
Fal"-lals` (?), n. pl. Gay ornaments; frippery; gewgaws. [Colloq.]
Thackeray.
Fal"lax (?), n. [L. fallax deceptive. See Fallacy.] Cavillation; a
caviling. [Obs.] Cranmer.
Fall"en (?), a. Dropped; prostrate; degraded; ruined; decreased; dead.
Some ruined temple or fallen monument.
Rogers.
Fal"len*cy (?), n. [LL. fallentia, L. fallens p. pr of fallere.] An
exception. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.
Fall"er (?), n. 1. One who, or that which, falls.
2. (Mach.) A part which acts by falling, as a stamp in a fulling mill,
or the device in a spinning machine to arrest motion when a thread
breaks.
Fall"fish` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) A fresh-water fish of the United States
(Semotilus bullaris); -- called also silver chub, and Shiner. The name
is also applied to other allied species.
Fal`li*bil"i*ty (?), n. The state of being fallible; liability to
deceive or to be deceived; as, the fallibity of an argument or of an
adviser.
Fal"li*ble (?), a. [LL. fallibilis, fr. L. fallere to deceive: cf. F.
faillible. See Fail.] Liable to fail, mistake, or err; liable to
deceive or to be deceived; as, all men are fallible; our opinions and
hopes are fallible.
Fal"li*bly, adv. In a fallible manner.
Fall"ing (?), a. & n. from Fall, v. i.
Falling away, Falling off, etc. See To fall away, To fall off, etc.,
under Fall, v. i. -- Falling band, the plain, broad, linen collar
turning down over the doublet, worn in the early part of the 17th
century. -- Falling sickness (Med.), epilepsy. Shak. -- Falling star.
(Astron.) See Shooting star. -- Falling stone, a stone falling through
the atmosphere; a meteorite; an aÎrolite. -- Falling tide, the ebb
tide. -- Falling weather, a rainy season. [Colloq.] Bartlett.
Fal*lo"pi*an (?), a. [From Fallopius, or Fallopio, a physician of
Modena, who died in 1562.] (Anat.) Pertaining to, or discovered by,
Fallopius; as, the Fallopian tubes or oviducts, the ducts or canals
which conduct the ova from the ovaries to the uterus.
Fal"low (?), a. [AS. fealu, fealo, pale yellow or red; akin to D. vaal
fallow, faded, OHG. falo, G. falb, fahl, Icel. fˆlr, and prob. to Lith.
palvas, OSlav. plav white, L. pallidus pale, pallere to be pale, Gr.
polio`s gray, Skr. palita. Cf. Pale, Favel, a., Favor.] 1. Pale red or
pale yellow; as, a fallow deer or greyhound. Shak.
2. [Cf. Fallow, n.] Left untilled or unsowed after plowing;
uncultivated; as, fallow ground.
Fallow chat, Fallow finch (Zoˆl.), a small European bird, the wheatear
(Saxicola únanthe). See Wheatear.
Fal"low, n. [So called from the fallow, or somewhat yellow, color of
naked ground; or perh. akin to E. felly, n., cf. MHG. valgen to plow
up, OHG. felga felly, harrow.] 1. Plowed land. [Obs.]
Who . . . pricketh his blind horse over the fallows.
Chaucer.
2. Land that has lain a year or more untilled or unseeded; land plowed
without being sowed for the season.
The plowing of fallows is a benefit to land.
Mortimer.
3. The plowing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season; as,
summer fallow, properly conducted, has ever been found a sure method of
destroying weeds.
Be a complete summer fallow, land is rendered tender and mellow.
The fallow gives it a better tilth than can be given by a fallow
crop.
Sinclair.
Fallow crop, the crop taken from a green fallow. [Eng.] -- Green
fallow, fallow whereby land is rendered mellow and clean from weeds, by
cultivating some green crop, as turnips, potatoes, etc. [Eng.]
Fal"low (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fallowed (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fallowing.] [From Fallow, n.] To plow, harrow, and break up, as land,
without seeding, for the purpose of destroying weeds and insects, and
rendering it mellow; as, it is profitable to fallow cold, strong,
clayey land.
Fal"low deer` (?). [So called from its fallow or pale yellow color.]
(Zoˆl.) A European species of deer (Cervus dama), much smaller than the
red deer. In summer both sexes are spotted with white. It is common in
England, where it is often domesticated in the parks.
Fal"low*ist (?), n. One who favors the practice of fallowing land. [R.]
Sinclair.
Fal"low*ness, n. A well or opening, through the successive floors of a
warehouse or manufactory, through which goods are raised or lowered.
[U.S.] Bartlett.
Fal"sa*ry (?), n. [L. falsarius, fr. falsus. See False, a.] A falsifier
of evidence. [Obs.] Sheldon.
False (?), a. [Compar. Falser (?); superl. Falsest.] [L. falsus, p. p.
of fallere to deceive; cf. OF. faus, fals, F. faux, and AS. fals fraud.
See Fail, Fall.] 1. Uttering falsehood; unveracious; given to deceit;
dishnest; as, a false witness.
2. Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.;
untrue; treacherous; perfidious; as, a false friend, lover, or subject;
false to promises.
I to myself was false, ere thou to me.
Milton.
3. Not according with truth or reality; not true; fitted or likely to
deceive or disappoint; as, a false statement.
4. Not genuine or real; assumed or designed to deceive; counterfeit;
hypocritical; as, false tears; false modesty; false colors; false
jewelry.
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Shak.
5. Not well founded; not firm or trustworthy; erroneous; as, a false
claim; a false conclusion; a false construction in grammar.
Whose false foundation waves have swept away.
Spenser.
6. Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are
temporary or supplemental.
7. (Mus.) Not in tune.
False arch (Arch.), a member having the appearance of an arch, though
not of arch construction. -- False attic, an architectural erection
above the main cornice, concealing a roof, but not having windows or
inclosing rooms. -- False bearing, any bearing which is not directly
upon a vertical support; thus, the weight carried by a corbel has a
false bearing. -- False cadence, an imperfect or interrupted cadence.
-- False conception (Med.), an abnormal conception in which a mole, or
misshapen fleshy mass, is produced instead of a properly organized
fetus. -- False croup (Med.), a spasmodic affection of the larynx
attended with the symptoms of membranous croup, but unassociated with
the deposit of a fibrinous membrane. -- False door or window (Arch.),
the representation of a door or window, inserted to complete a series
of doors or windows or to give symmetry. -- False fire, a combustible
carried by vessels of war, chiefly for signaling, but sometimes burned
for the purpose of deceiving an enemy; also, a light on shore for
decoying a vessel to destruction. -- False galena. See Blende. -- False
imprisonment (Law), the arrest and imprisonment of a person without
warrant or cause, or contrary to law; or the unlawful detaining of a
person in custody. -- False keel (Naut.), the timber below the main
keel, used to serve both as a protection and to increase the shio's
lateral resistance. -- False key, a picklock. -- False leg. (Zoˆl.) See
Proleg. -- False membrane (Med.), the fibrinous deposit formed in croup
and diphtheria, and resembling in appearance an animal membrane. --
False papers (Naut.), documents carried by a ship giving false
representations respecting her cargo, destination, ect., for the
purpose of deceiving. -- False passage (Surg.), an unnatural passage
leading off from a natural canal, such as the urethra, and produced
usually by the unskillful introduction of instruments. -- False
personation (Law), the intentional false assumption of the name and
personality of another. -- False pretenses (Law), false representations
concerning past or present facts and events, for the purpose of
defrauding another. -- False rail (Naut.), a thin piece of timber
placed on top of the head rail to strengthen it. -- False relation
(Mus.), a progression in harmony, in which a certain note in a chord
appears in the next chord prefixed by a flat or sharp. -- False return
(Law), an untrue return made to a process by the officer to whom it was
delivered for execution. -- False ribs (Anat.), the asternal rebs, of
which there are five pairs in man. -- False roof (Arch.), the space
between the upper ceiling and the roof. Oxford Gloss. -- False token, a
false mark or other symbol, used for fraudulent purposes. -- False
scorpion (Zoˆl.), any arachnid of the genus Chelifer. See Book
scorpion. -- False tack (Naut.), a coming up into the wind and filling
away again on the same tack. -- False vampire (Zoˆl.), the Vampyrus
spectrum of South America, formerly erroneously supposed to have
blood-sucking habits; -- called also vampire, and ghost vampire. The
genuine blood-sucking bats belong to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla.
See Vampire. -- False window. (Arch.) See False door, above. -- False
wing. (Zoˆl.) See Alula, and Bastard wing, under Bastard. -- False
works (Civil Engin.), construction works to facilitate the erection of
the main work, as scaffolding, bridge centering, etc.
False, adv. Not truly; not honestly; falsely. "You play me false."
Shak.
False, v. t. [L. falsare to falsify, fr. falsus: cf. F. fausser. See
False, a.] 1. To report falsely; to falsify. [Obs.] Chaucer.
2. To betray; to falsify. [Obs.]
[He] hath his truthe falsed in this wise.
Chaucer.
3. To mislead by want of truth; to deceive. [Obs.]
In his falsed fancy.
Spenser.
4. To feign; to pretend to make. [Obs.] "And falsed oft his blows."
Spenser.
False"-faced` (?), a. Hypocritical. Shak.
False"-heart` (?), a. False- hearted. Shak.
False"-heart`ed, a. Hollow or unsound at the core; treacherous;
deceitful; perfidious. Bacon. -- False"-heart`ed*ness, n. Bp.
Stillingfleet.
False"hood (?), n. [False + - hood] 1. Want of truth or accuracy; an
untrue assertion or representation; error; misrepresentation; falsity.
Though it be a lie in the clock, it is but a falsehood in the hand
of the dial when pointing at a wrong hour, if rightly following the
direction of the wheel which moveth it.
Fuller.
2. A deliberate intentional assertion of what is known to be untrue; a
departure from moral integrity; a lie.
3. Treachery; deceit; perfidy; unfaithfulness.
Betrayed by falsehood of his guard.
Shak.
4. A counterfeit; a false appearance; an imposture.
For his molten image is falsehood.
Jer. x. 14.
No falsehood can endure Touch of celestial temper.
Milton.
Syn. -- Falsity; lie; untruth; fiction; fabrication. See Falsity.
False"ly (?), adv. In a false manner; erroneously; not truly;
perfidiously or treacherously. "O falsely, falsely murdered." Shak.
Oppositions of science, falsely so called.
1 Tim. vi. 20.
Will ye steal, murder . . . and swear falsely ?
Jer. vii. 9.
False"ness, n. The state of being false; contrariety to the fact;
inaccuracy; want of integrity or uprightness; double dealing;
unfaithfulness; treachery; perfidy; as, the falseness of a report, a
drawing, or a singer's notes; the falseness of a man, or of his word.
Fals"er (?), n. A deceiver. [Obs.] Spenser.
Fal*set"to (?), n.; pl. Falsettos (#). [It. falsetto, dim. fr. L.
falsus. See False.] A false or artificial voice; that voice in a man
which lies above his natural voice; the male counter tenor or alto
voice. See Head voice, under Voice.
||Fal"si*cri"men (?). [L.] (Civ. Law) The crime of falsifying.
This term in the Roman law included not only forgery, but every species
of fraud and deceit. It never has been used in so extensive a sense in
modern common law, in which its predominant significance is forgery,
though it also includes perjury and offenses of a like character.
Burrill. Greenleaf.
Fal"si*fi`a*ble (?), a. [Cf. OF. falsifiable.] Capable of being
falsified, counterfeited, or corrupted. Johnson.
Fal`si*fi*ca"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. falsification.] 1. The act of
falsifying, or making false; a counterfeiting; the giving to a thing an
appearance of something which it is not.
To counterfeit the living image of king in his person exceedeth all
falsifications.
Bacon.
2. Willful misstatement or misrepresentation.
Extreme necessity . . . forced him upon this bold and violent
falsification of the doctrine of the alliance.
Bp. Warburton.
3. (Equity) The showing an item of charge in an account to be wrong.
Story.
Fal"si*fi*ca`tor (?), n. [Cf. F. falsificateur.] A falsifier. Bp.
Morton.
Fal"si*fi`er (?), n. One who falsifies, or gives to a thing a deceptive
appearance; a liar.
Fal"si*fy (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Falsified (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Falsifying.] [L. falsus false + -ly: cf. F. falsifier. See False, a.]
1. To make false; to represent falsely.
The Irish bards use to forge and falsify everything as they list,
to please or displease any man.
Spenser.
2. To counterfeit; to forge; as, to falsify coin.
3. To prove to be false, or untrustworthy; to confute; to disprove; to
nullify; to make to appear false.
By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify
men's hope.
Shak.
Jews and Pagans united all their endeavors, under Julian the
apostate, to baffie and falsify the prediction.
Addison.
4. To violate; to break by falsehood; as, to falsify one's faith or
word. Sir P. Sidney.
5. To baffle or escape; as, to falsify a blow. Butler.
6. (Law) To avoid or defeat; to prove false, as a judgment. Blackstone.
7. (Equity) To show, in accounting, (an inem of charge inserted in an
account) to be wrong. Story. Daniell.
8. To make false by multilation or addition; to tamper with; as, to
falsify a record or document.
Fal"si*fy, v. i. To tell lies; to violate the truth.
It is absolutely and universally unlawful to lie and falsify.
South.
Fals"ism (?), n. That which is evidently false; an assertion or
statement the falsity of which is plainly apparent; -- opposed to
truism.
Fal"si*ty (?), n.;pl. Falsities (#). [L. falsitas: cf. F. faussetÈ, OF.
also, falsitÈ. See False, a.] 1. The quality of being false;
coutrariety or want of conformity to truth.
Probability does not make any alteration, either in the truth or
falsity of things.
South.
2. That which is false; falsehood; a lie; a false assertion.
Men often swallow falsities for truths.
Sir T. Brown.
Syn. -- Falsehood; lie; deceit. -- Falsity, Falsehood, Lie. Falsity
denotes the state or quality of being false. A falsehood is a false
declaration designedly made. A lie is a gross, unblushing falsehood.
The falsity of a person's assertion may be proved by the evidence of
others and thus the charge of falsehood be fastened upon him.
Fal"ter (?), v. t. To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as
barley. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
Fal"ter, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Faltered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Faltering.]
[OE. falteren, faltren, prob. from fault. See Fault, v. & n.] 1. To
hesitate; to speak brokenly or weakly; to stammer; as, his tongue
falters.
With faltering speech and visage incomposed.
Milton.
2. To tremble; to totter; to be unsteady. "He found his legs falter."
Wiseman.
3. To hesitate in purpose or action.
Ere her native king Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.
Shak.
4. To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; -- said of the
mind or of thought.
Here indeed the power of disinct conception of space and distance
falters.
I. Taylor.
Fal"ter, v. t. To utter with hesitation, or in a broken, trembling, or
weak manner.
And here he faltered forth his last farewell.
Byron.
Mde me most happy, faltering "I am thine."
Tennyson.
<! p. 541 !>
Fal"ter (?), n. [See Falter, v. i.] Hesitation; trembling; feebleness;
an uncertain or broken sound; as, a slight falter in her voice.
The falter of an idle shepherd's pipe.
Lowell.
Fal"ter*ing, a. Hesitating; trembling. "With faltering speech." Milton.
-- n. Falter; halting; hesitation. -- Fal"ter*ing*ly, adv.
||Fa`luns" (?), n. [F.] (Geol.) A series of strata, of the Middle
||Tertiary period, of France, abounding in shells, and used by Lyell as
||the type of his Miocene subdivision.
Fal"we (?), a. & n. Fallow. [Obs.] Chaucer.
||Falx (?), n. [L., a sickle.] (Anat.) A curved fold or process of the
||dura mater or the peritoneum; esp., one of the partitionlike folds of
||the dura mater which extend into the great fissures of the brain.
Fam"ble (?), v. i. [OE. falmelen; cf. SW. famla to grope, Dan. famle to
grope, falter, hesitate, Icel. flma to grope. Cf. Famble.] To stammer.
[Obs.] Nares.
Fam"ble, n. [Cf. Famble, v.] A hand. [Slang & Obs.] "We clap our
fambles." Beau. & Fl.
Fame (?), n. [OF. fame, L. fama, fr. fari to speak, akin to Gr.
&?;&?;&?;&?; a saying, report, &?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to speak. See Ban, and
cf. Fable, Fate, Euphony, Blame.] 1. Public report or rumor.
The fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house.
Gen. xlv. 16.
2. Report or opinion generally diffused; renown; public estimation;
celebrity, either favorable or unfavorable; as, the fame of Washington.
I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited.
Shak.
Syn. -- Notoriety; celebrity; renown; reputation.
Fame, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Famed (?),; p. pr. & vb. n. Faming.] 1. To
report widely or honorably.
The field where thou art famed To have wrought such wonders.
Milton.
2. To make famous or renowned.
Those Hesperian gardens famed of old.
Milton.
Fame"less, a. Without fame or renown. -- Fame"less*ly, adv.
Fa*mil`iar (?), a. [OE. familer, familier, F. familier, fr. L.
familiaris, fr. familia family. See Family.] 1. Of or pertaining to a
family; domestic. "Familiar feuds." Byron.
2. Closely acquainted or intimate, as a friend or companion; well
versed in, as any subject of study; as, familiar with the Scriptures.
3. Characterized by, or exhibiting, the manner of an intimate friend;
not formal; unconstrained; easy; accessible. "In loose, familiar
strains." Addison.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Shak.
4. Well known; well understood; common; frequent; as, a familiar
illustration.
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be As things acquainted
and familiar to us.
Shak.
There is nothing more familiar than this.
Locke.
5. Improperly acquainted; wrongly intimate. Camden.
Familiar spirit, a demon or evil spirit supposed to attend at call. 1
Sam. xxviii. 3, 7-9.
Fa*mil"iar, n. 1. An intimate; a companion.
All my familiars watched for my halting.
Jer. xx. 10.
2. An attendant demon or evil spirit. Shak.
3. (Court of Inquisition) A confidential officer employed in the
service of the tribunal, especially in apprehending and imprisoning the
accused.
Fa*mil`iar"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Familiarities (#). [OE. familarite, F.
familiaritÈfr. L. faniliaritas. See Familiar.] 1. The state of being
familiar; intimate and frequent converse, or association; unconstrained
intercourse; freedom from ceremony and constraint; intimacy; as, to
live in remarkable familiarity.
2. Anything said or done by one person to another unceremoniously and
without constraint; esp., in the pl., such actions and words as
propriety and courtesy do not warrant; liberties.
Syn. -- Acquaintance; fellowship; affability; intimacy. See
Acquaintance.
Fa*mil`iar*i*za"tion (?), n. The act or process of making familiar; the
result of becoming familiar; as, familiarization with scenes of blood.
Fa*mil"iar*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Familiarized (?); p. pr. & vb.
n. Familiarizing (?).] [Cf. F. familiariser.] 1. To make familiar or
intimate; to habituate; to accustom; to make well known by practice or
converse; as, to familiarize one's self with scenes of distress.
2. To make acquainted, or skilled, by practice or study; as, to
familiarize one's self with a business, a book, or a science.
Fa"mil"iar*ly, adv. In a familiar manner.
Fa*mil"iar*ness, n. Familiarity. [R.]
Fa*mil"ia*ry (?), a. [L. familiaris. See Familiar.] Of or pertaining to
a family or household; domestic. [Obs.] Milton.
Fam"i*lism (?), n. The tenets of the Familists. Milton.
Fam"i*list (?), n. [From Family.] (Eccl. Hist.) One of afanatical
Antinomian sect originating in Holland, and existing in England about
1580, called the Family of Love, who held that religion consists wholly
in love.
Fam"i*lis*ter*y (?), n.; pl. Familisteries (&?;). [F. familistËre.] A
community in which many persons unite as in one family, and are
regulated by certain communistic laws and customs.
{ Fam`i*listic (?), Fam`i*lis"tic*al (?), } a. Pertaining to Familists.
Baxter.
Fam"i*ly (?), n.; pl. Families (#). [L. familia, fr. famulus servant;
akin to Oscan famel servant, cf. faamat he dwells, Skr. dhman house,
fr. dhto set, make, do: cf. F. famille. Cf. Do, v. t., Doom, Fact,
Feat.] 1. The collective body of persons who live in one house, and
under one head or manager; a household, including parents, children,
and servants, and, as the case may be, lodgers or boarders.
2. The group comprising a husband and wife and their dependent
children, constituting a fundamental unit in the organization of
society.
The welfare of the family underlies the welfare of society.
H. Spencer.
3. Those who descend from one common progenitor; a tribe, clan, or
race; kindred; house; as, the human family; the family of Abraham; the
father of a family.
Go ! and pretend your family is young.
Pope.
4. Course of descent; genealogy; line of ancestors; lineage.
5. Honorable descent; noble or respectable stock; as, a man of family.
6. A group of kindred or closely related individuals; as, a family of
languages; a family of States; the chlorine family.
7. (Biol.) A group of organisms, either animal or vegetable, related by
certain points of resemblance in structure or development, more
comprehensive than a genus, because it is usually based on fewer or
less pronounced points of likeness. In zoˆlogy a family is less
comprehesive than an order; in botany it is often considered the same
thing as an order.
Family circle. See under Circle. -- Family man. (a) A man who has a
family; esp., one who has a wife and children living with him andd
dependent upon him. (b) A man of domestic habits. "The Jews are
generally, when married, most exemplary family men." Mayhew. -- Family
of curves or surfaces (Geom.), a group of curves or surfaces derived
from a single equation. -- In a family way, like one belonging to the
family. "Why don't we ask him and his ladies to come over in a family
way, and dine with some other plain country gentlefolks?" Thackeray. --
In the family way, pregnant. [Colloq.]
Fam"ine (?), n. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr.
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; want, need, Skr. hni loss, lack, h to leave.] General
scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. "Worn with
famine." Milton.
There was a famine in the land.
Gen. xxvi. 1.
Famine fever (Med.), typhus fever.
Fam"ish (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Famished (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Famishing.] [OE. famen; cf. OF. afamer, L. fames. See Famine, and cf.
Affamish.] 1. To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger. Shak.
2. To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with
hanger.
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to
Pharaoh for bread.
Cen. xli. 55.
The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel.
Dryden.
3. To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprivation or denial
of anything necessary.
And famish him of breath, if not of bread.
Milton.
4. To force or constrain by famine.
He had famished Paris into a surrender.
Burke.
Fam"ish, v. i. 1. To die of hunger; to starve.
2. To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in
strength, or to come near to perish.
You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?
Shak.
3. To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or
necessary.
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.
Prov. x. 3.
Fam"ish*ment (?), n. State of being famished.
Fa*mos"i*ty (?), n. [L. famositas infamy: cf. F. famositÈ. See Famous.]
The state or quality of being famous. [Obs.] Johnson.
Fa"mous (?), a. [L. famosus, fr. fama fame: cf. F. fameux. See Fame.]
Celebrated in fame or public report; renowned; mach talked of;
distinguished in story; -- used in either a good or a bad sense,
chiefly the former; often followed by for; as, famous for erudition,
for eloquence, for military skill; a famous pirate.
Famous for a scolding tongue.
Shak.
Syn. -- Noted; remarkable; signal; conspicuous; celebrated; renowned;
illustrious; eminent; transcendent; excellent. -- Famous, Renowned,
Illustrious. Famous is applied to a person or thing widely spoken of as
extraordinary; renowned is applied to those who are named again and
again with honor; illustrious, to those who have dazzled the world by
the splendor of their deeds or their virtues. See Distinguished.
Fa"moused (?), a. Renowned. [Obs.] Shak.
Fa"mous*ly (?), adv. In a famous manner; in a distinguished degree;
greatly; splendidly.
Then this land was famously enriched With politic grave counsel.
Shak.
Fa"mous*ness, n. The state of being famous.
Fam"u*lar (?), n. [Cf. L. famularis of servants.] Domestic; familiar.
[Obs.] Chaucer.
Fam"u*late (?), v. i. [L. famulatus, p. p. of famulari to serve, fr.
famulus servant.] To serve. [Obs.]
Fam"u*list (?), n. [L. famulus servant.] A collegian of inferior rank
or position, corresponding to the sizar at Cambridge. [Oxford Univ.,
Eng.]
Fan (?), n. [AS. fann, fr. L. vannus fan, van for winnowing grain; cf.
F. van. Cf. Van a winnowing machine, Winnow.] 1. An instrument used for
producing artificial currents of air, by the wafting or revolving
motion of a broad surface; as: (a) An instrument for cooling the
person, made of feathers, paper, silk, etc., and often mounted on
sticks all turning about the same pivot, so as when opened to radiate
from the center and assume the figure of a section of a circle. (b)
(Mach.) Any revolving vane or vanes used for producing currents of air,
in winnowing grain, blowing a fire, ventilation, etc., or for checking
rapid motion by the resistance of the air; a fan blower; a fan wheel.
(c) An instrument for winnowing grain, by moving which the grain is
tossed and agitated, and the chaff is separated and blown away. (d)
Something in the form of a fan when spread, as a peacock's tail, a
window, etc. (e) A small vane or sail, used to keep the large sails of
a smock windmill always in the direction of the wind.
Clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with
the fan.
Is. xxx. 24.
2. That which produces effects analogous to those of a fan, as in
exciting a flame, etc.; that which inflames, heightens, or strengthens;
as, it served as a fan to the flame of his passion.
3. A quintain; -- from its form. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Fan blower, a wheel with vanes fixed on a rotating shaft inclosed in a
case or chamber, to create a blast of air (fan blast) for forge
purposes, or a current for draft and ventilation; a fanner. -- Fan
cricket (Zoˆl.), a mole cricket. -- Fan light (Arch.), a window over a
door; -- so called from the semicircular form and radiating sash bars
of those windows which are set in the circular heads of arched
doorways. -- Fan shell (Zoˆl.), any shell of the family PectinidÊ. See
Scallop, n., 1. -- Fan tracery (Arch.), the decorative tracery on the
surface of fan vaulting. -- Fan vaulting (Arch.), an elaborate system
of vaulting, in which the ribs diverge somewhat like the rays of a fan,
as in Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey. It is peculiar to
English Gothic. -- Fan wheel, the wheel of a fan blower. -- Fan window.
Same as Fan light (above).
Fan (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fanned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fanning (?).]
[Cf. OF. vanner, L. vannere. See Fan, n., Van a winnowing machine.] 1.
To move as with a fan.
The air . . . fanned with unnumbered plumes.
Milton.
2. To cool and refresh, by moving the air with a fan; to blow the air
on the face of with a fan.
3. To ventilate; to blow on; to affect by air put in motion.
Calm as the breath which fans our eastern groves.
Dryden.
4. To winnow; to separate chaff from, and drive it away by a current of
air; as, to fan wheat. Jer. li. 2.
5. To excite or stir up to activity, as a fan excites a flame; to
stimulate; as, this conduct fanned the excitement of the populace.
Fanning machine, or Fanning mill, a machine for separating seed from
chaff, etc., by a blast of air; a fanner.
||Fa`nal" (?), n. [F.] A lighthouse, or the apparatus placed in it for
||giving light.
Fa*nat"ic (?), a. [L. fanaticus inspired by divinity, enthusiastic,
frantic, fr. fanum fane: cf. F. fanatique. See Fane.] Pertaining to, or
indicating, fanaticism; extravagant in opinions; ultra; unreasonable;
excessively enthusiastic, especially on religious subjects; as, fanatic
zeal; fanatic notions.
But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood,
hugs it to the last.
T. Moore.
Fa*nat"ic, n. A person affected by excessive enthusiasm, particularly
on religious subjects; one who indulges wild and extravagant notions of
religion.
There is a new word, coined within few months, called fanatics,
which, by the close stickling thereof, seemeth well cut out and
proportioned to signify what is meant thereby, even the sectaries
of our age.
Fuller (1660).
Fanatics are governed rather by imagination than by judgment.
Stowe.
Fa*nat"ic*al (?), a. Characteristic of, or relating to, fanaticism;
fanatic. - Fa*nat"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Fa*nat"ic*al*ness, n.
Fa*nat"i*cism (?), n. [Cf. Fanatism.] Excessive enthusiasm, unreasoning
zeal, or wild and extravagant notions, on any subject, especially
religion; religious frenzy.
Syn. -- See Superstition.
Fa*nat"i*cize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fanaticized (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fanaticizing (?).] To cause to become a fanatic.
Fan"a*tism (?), n. [Cf. F. fanatisme. Cf. Fanaticism.] Fanaticism. [R.]
Gibbon.
Fan"cied (?), a. [From Fancy, v. t.] Formed or conceived by the fancy;
unreal; as, a fancied wrong.
Fan"ci*er (?), n. 1. One who is governed by fancy. "Not reasoners, but
fanciers." Macaulay.
2. One who fancies or has a special liking for, or interest in, a
particular object or class or objects; hence, one who breeds and keeps
for sale birds and animals; as, bird fancier, dog fancier, etc.
Fan"ci*ful (?), a. 1. Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by
reason and experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary
projects.
2. Conceived in the fancy; not consistent with facts or reason;
abounding in ideal qualities or figures; as, a fanciful scheme; a
fanciful theory.
3. Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she wore a fanciful headdress.
Gather up all fancifullest shells.
Keats.
Syn. -- Imaginative; ideal; visionary; capricious; chimerical;
whimsical; fantastical; wild. -- Fanciful, Fantastical, Visionary. We
speak of that as fanciful which is irregular in taste and judgment; we
speak of it as fantastical when it becomes grotesque and extravagant as
well as irregular; we speak of it as visionary when it is wholly
unfounded in the nature of things. Fanciful notions are the product of
a heated fancy, without any tems are made up of oddly assorted fancies,
aften of the most whimsical kind; visionary expectations are those
which can never be realized in fact.
-- Fan"ci*ful*ly, adv. - Fan"ci*ful*ness, n.
<! p. 542 !>
Fan"ci*less (?), a. Having no fancy; without ideas or imagination. [R.]
A pert or bluff important wight, Whose brain is fanciless, whose
blood is white.
Armstrong.
Fan"cy (?), n.; pl. Fancies (#). [Contr. fr. fantasy, OF. fantasie,
fantaisie, F. fantaisie, L. phantasia, fr. Gr. &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;
appearance, imagination, the power of perception and presentation in
the mind, fr. &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to make visible, to place before
one's mind, fr. &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to show; akin to &?;&?;&?;&?;,
&?;&?;&?;, light, Skr. bhto shine. Cf. Fantasy, Fantasia, Epiphany,
Phantom.] 1. The faculty by which the mind forms an image or a
representation of anything perceived before; the power of combining and
modifying such objects into new pictures or images; the power of
readily and happily creating and recalling such objects for the purpose
of amusement, wit, or embellishment; imagination.
In the soul Are many lesser faculties, that serve Reason as chief.
Among these fancy next Her office holds.
Milton.
2. An image or representation of anything formed in the mind;
conception; thought; idea; conceit.
How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, Of sorriest fancies your
companoins making ?
Shak.
3. An opinion or notion formed without much reflection; caprice; whim;
impression.
I have always had a fancy that learning might be made a play and
recreation to children.
Locke.
4. Inclination; liking, formed by caprice rather than reason; as, to
strike one's fancy; hence, the object of inclination or liking.
To fit your fancies to your father's will.
Shak.
5. That which pleases or entertains the taste or caprice without much
use or value.
London pride is a pretty fancy for borders.
Mortimer.
6. A sort of love song or light impromptu ballad. [Obs.] Shak.
The fancy, all of a class who exhibit and cultivate any peculiar taste
or fancy; hence, especially, sporting characters taken collectively, or
any specific class of them, as jockeys, gamblers, prize fighters, etc.
At a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the
fancy.
De Quincey.
Syn. -- Imagination; conceit; taste; humor; inclination; whim; liking.
See Imagination.
Fan"cy, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fancied (?), p. pr. & vb. n. Fancying
(&?;).] 1. To figure to one's self; to believe or imagine something
without proof.
If our search has reached no farther than simile and metaphor, we
rather fancy than know.
Locke.
2. To love. [Obs.] Shak.
Fan"cy, v. t. 1. To form a conception of; to portray in the mind; to
imagine.
He whom I fancy, but can ne'er express.
Dryden.
2. To have a fancy for; to like; to be pleased with, particularly on
account of external appearance or manners. "We fancy not the cardinal."
Shak.
3. To believe without sufficient evidence; to imagine (something which
is unreal).
He fancied he was welcome, because those arounde him were his
kinsmen.
Thackeray.
Fan"cy, a. 1. Adapted to please the fancy or taste; ornamental; as,
fancy goods.
2. Extravagant; above real value.
This anxiety never degenerated into a monomania, like that which
led his [Frederick the Great's] father to pay fancy prices for
giants.
Macaulay.
Fancy ball, a ball in which porsons appear in fanciful dresses in
imitation of the costumes of different persons and nations. -- Fancy
fair, a fair at which articles of fancy and ornament are sold,
generally for some charitable purpose. -- Fancy goods, fabrics of
various colors, patterns, etc., as ribbons, silks, laces, etc., in
distinction from those of a simple or plain color or make. -- Fancy
line (Naut.), a line rove through a block at the jaws of a gaff; --
used to haul it down. -- Fancy roller (Carding Machine), a clothed
cylinder (usually having straight teeth) in front of the doffer. --
Fancy stocks, a species of stocks which afford great opportunity for
stock gambling, since they have no intrinsic value, and the
fluctuations in their prices are artificial. -- Fancy store, one where
articles of fancy and ornament are sold. -- Fancy woods, the more rare
and expensive furniture woods, as mahogany, satinwood, rosewood, etc.
Fan"cy-free` (?), a. Free from the power of love. "In maiden
meditation, fancy-free." Shak.
Fan"cy*mon`ger (?), n. A lovemonger; a whimsical lover. [Obs.] Shak.
Fan"cy-sick` (?), a. Love- sick. Shak.
Fan"cy*work` (?), n. Ornamental work with a needle or hook, as
embroidery, crocheting, netting, etc.
Fand (?), obs. imp. of Find. Spenser.
Fan*dan"go (?), n.; pl. Fandangoes (#). [Sp. A name brought, together
with the dance, from the West Indies to Spain.] 1. A lively dance, in
3-8 or 6-8 time, much practiced in Spain and Spanish America. Also, the
tune to which it is danced.
2. A ball or general dance, as in Mexico. [Colloq.]
Fane (?), n. [L. fanum a place dedicated to some deity, a sanctuary,
fr. fari to speak. See Fame.] A temple; a place consecrated to
religion; a church. [Poet.]
Such to this British Isle, her Christian fanes.
Wordsworth.
Fane, n. [See Vane.] A weathercock. [Obs.]
||Fa*ne"ga (?), n. [Sp.] A dry measure in Spain and Spanish America,
||varying from 1&?; to 2&?; bushels; also, a measure of land. De
||Colange.
Fan"fare` (?), n. [F. Cf. Fanfaron.] A flourish of trumpets, as in
coming into the lists, etc.; also, a short and lively air performed on
hunting horns during the chase.
The fanfare announcing the arrival of the various Christian
princes.
Sir W. Scott.
||Fan"fa*ron (?), n. [F., fr. Sp. fanfarron; cf. It. fanfano, and OSp.
||fanfa swaggering, boasting, also Ar. farfr talkative.] A bully; a
||hector; a swaggerer; an empty boaster. [R.] Dryden.
Fan*far`on*ade" (?), n. [F. fanfaronnade, fr. Sp. fanfarronada. See
Fanfaron.] A swaggering; vain boasting; ostentation; a bluster. Swift.
Fan"foot` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) (a) A species of gecko having the toes
expanded into large lobes for adhesion. The Egyptian fanfoot
(Phyodactylus gecko) is believed, by the natives, to have venomous
toes. (b) Any moth of the genus Polypogon.
Fang (fng), v. t. [OE. fangen, fongen, fon (g orig. only in p. p. and
imp. tense), AS. fn; akin to D. vangen, OHG. fhan, G. fahen, fangen,
Icel. f, Sw. fÂ, fÂnga, Dan. fange, faae, Goth. fahan, and prob. to E.
fair, peace, pact. Cf. Fair, a.] 1. To catch; to seize, as with the
teeth; to lay hold of; to gripe; to clutch. [Obs.] Shak.
He's in the law's clutches; you see he's fanged.
J. Webster.
2. To enable to catch or tear; to furnish with fangs. "Chariots fanged
with scythes." Philips.
Fang, n. [From Fang, v. t.; cf. AS. fang a taking, booty, G. fang.] 1.
(Zoˆl.) The tusk of an animal, by which the prey is seized and held or
torn; a long pointed tooth; esp., one of the usually erectile, venomous
teeth of serpents. Also, one of the falcers of a spider.
Since I am a dog, beware my fangs.
Shak.
2. Any shoot or other thing by which hold is taken.
The protuberant fangs of the yucca.
Evelyn.
3. (Anat.) The root, or one of the branches of the root, of a tooth.
See Tooth.
4. (Mining) A niche in the side of an adit or shaft, for an air course.
Knight.
5. (Mech.) A projecting tooth or prong, as in a part of a lock, or the
plate of a belt clamp, or the end of a tool, as a chisel, where it
enters the handle.
6. (Naut.) (a) The valve of a pump box. (b) A bend or loop of a rope.
In a fang, fast entangled. -- To lose the fang, said of a pump when the
water has gone out; hence: To fang a pump, to supply it with the water
necessary to make it operate. [Scot.]
Fanged (?), a. Having fangs or tusks; as, a fanged adder. Also used
figuratively.
Fan"gle (?), n. [From Fang, v. t.; hence, prop., a taking up a new
thing.] Something new-fashioned; a foolish innovation; a gewgaw; a
trifling ornament.
Fan"gle, v. t. To fashion. [Obs.]
To control and new fangle the Scripture.
Milton.
Fan"gled (?), a. New made; hence, gaudy; showy; vainly decorated.
[Obs., except with the prefix new.] See Newfangled. "Our fangled
world." Shak.
Fan"gle*ness (?), n. Quality of being fangled. [Obs.]
He them in new fangleness did pass.
Spenser.
Fang"less (?), a. Destitute of fangs or tusks. "A fangless lion." Shak.
Fan"got (?), n. [Cf. It. fagotto, fangotto, a bundle. Cf. Fagot.] A
quantity of wares, as raw silk, etc., from one hundred weight.
Fan"ion (?), n. [See Fanon.] 1. (Mil.) A small flag sometimes carried
at the head of the baggage of a brigade. [Obs.]
2. A small flag for marking the stations in surveying.
Fan"like` (?), a. Resembling a fan; -- specifically (Bot.), folded up
like a fan, as certain leaves; plicate.
Fan"nel (?), n. [Dim., from same source as fanon.] Same as Fanon.
Fan"ner (?), n. 1. One who fans. Jer. li. 2.
2. A fan wheel; a fan blower. See under Fan.
Fan"-nerved` (?), a. (Bot. & Zoˆl.) Having the nerves or veins arranged
in a radiating manner; -- said of certain leaves, and of the wings of
some insects.
Fan"on (?), n. [F. fanon, LL. fano, fr. OHG. fano banner cloth, G.
fahne banner. See Vane, and cf. Fanion, Gonfalon.] (Eccl.) A term
applied to various articles, as: (a) A peculiar striped scarf worn by
the pope at mass, and by eastern bishops. (b) A maniple. [Written also
fannel, phanon, etc.]
Fan" palm` (?). (Bot.) Any palm tree having fan-shaped or radiate
leaves; as the ChamÊrops humilis of Southern Europe; the species of
Sabal and Thrinax in the West Indies, Florida, etc.; and especially the
great talipot tree (Corypha umbraculifera) of Ceylon and Malaya. The
leaves of the latter are often eighteen feet long and fourteen wide,
and are used for umbrellas, tents, and roofs. When cut up, they are
used for books and manuscripts.
Fan"tail` (fn"tl`), n. (Zool.) (a) A variety of the domestic pigeon, so
called from the shape of the tail. (b) Any bird of the Australian genus
Rhipidura, in which the tail is spread in the form of a fan during
flight. They belong to the family of flycatchers.
Fan"-tailed` (?), a. (Zoˆl.) Having an expanded, or fan-shaped, tail;
as, the fan-tailed pigeon.
Fan*ta"si*a (?), n. [It. See Fancy.] (Mus.) A continuous composition,
not divided into what are called movements, or governed by the ordinary
rules of musical design, but in which the author's fancy roves
unrestricted by set form.
Fan"ta*sied (?), a. [From Fantasy.] Filled with fancies or
imaginations. [Obs.] Shak.
Fan"tasm (?), n. [See Phantasm, Fancy.] Same as Phantasm.
Fan"tast (?), n. One whose manners or ideas are fantastic. [R.]
Coleridge.
Fan*tas"tic (?), a. [F. fantastique, fr. Gr.
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; able to represent, fr.
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to make visible. See Fancy.] 1. Existing
only in imagination; fanciful; imaginary; not real; chimerical.
2. Having the nature of a phantom; unreal. Shak.
3. Indulging the vagaries of imagination; whimsical; full of absurd
fancies; capricious; as, fantastic minds; a fantastic mistress.
4. Resembling fantasies in irregularity, caprice, or eccentricity;
irregular; oddly shaped; grotesque.
There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, That wreathes its old
fantastic roots so high.
T. Gray.
Syn. -- Fanciful; imaginative; ideal; visionary; capricious;
chimerical; whimsical; queer. See Fanciful.
Fan*tas"tic, n. A person given to fantastic dress, manners, etc.; an
eccentric person; a fop. Milton.
Our fantastics, who, having a fine watch, take all ocasions to draw
it out to be seen.
Fuller.
Fan*tas"tic*al (?), a. Fanciful; unreal; whimsical; capricious;
fantastic.
Fan*tas`ti*cal"i*ty (?), n. Fantastically. [Obs.]
Fan*tas"tic*al*ly (?), adv. In a fantastic manner.
the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold
thread, upon her bosom.
Hawthorne.
Fan*tas"tic-al*ness, n. The quality of being fantastic.
Fan*tas"ti*cism (?), n. The quality of being fantastical; fancifulness;
whimsicality. Ruskin.
Fan*tas"tic*ly (?), adv. Fantastically. [Obs.]
Fan*tas"tic*ness, n. Fantasticalness. [Obs.]
||Fan*tas"ti*co (?), n. [It.] A fantastic. [Obs.] Shak.
Fan"ta*sy (?), n.; pl. Fantasies (#). [See Fancy.] 1. Fancy;
imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a vagary
of the imagination; whim; caprice; humor.
Is not this something more than fantasy ?
Shak.
A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory.
Milton.
2. Fantastic designs.
Embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread.
Hawthorne.
Fan"ta*sy, v. t. To have a fancy for; to be pleased with; to like; to
fancy. [Obs.] Cavendish.
Which he doth most fantasy.
Robynson (More's Utopia).
||Fan`toc*ci"ni (?), n. pl. [It., dim. fr. fante child.] Puppets caused
||to perform evolutions or dramatic scenes by means of machinery; also,
||the representations in which they are used.
Fan"tom (?), n. See Phantom.
Fantom corn, phantom corn. Grose.
Fap (?), a. Fuddled. [Obs.] Shak.
Fa*quir" (?), n. See Fakir.
Far (?), n. [See Farrow.] (Zoˆl.) A young pig, or a litter of pigs.
Far, a. [Farther (#) and Farthest (#) are used as the compar. and
superl. of far, although they are corruptions arising from confusion
with further and furthest. See Further.] [OE. fer, feor, AS. feor; akin
to OS. fer, D. ver, OHG. ferro, adv., G. fern, a., Icel. fjarri, Dan.
fjirn, Sw. fjerran, adv., Goth. farra, adv., Gr. &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;
beyond, Skr. paras, adv., far, and prob. to L. per through, and E.
prefix for-, as in forgive, and also to fare. Cf. Farther, Farthest.]
1. Distant in any direction; not near; remote; mutually separated by a
wide space or extent.
They said, . . . We be come from a far country.
Josh. ix. 6.
The nations far and near contend in choice.
Dryden.
2. Remote from purpose; contrary to design or wishes; as, far be it
from me to justify cruelty.
3. Remote in affection or obedience; at a distance, morally or
spiritually; t enmity with; alienated.
They that are far from thee ahsll perish.
Ps. lxxiii. 27.
4. Widely different in nature or quality; opposite in character.
He was far from ill looking, though he thought himself still
farther.
F. Anstey.
5. The more distant of two; as, the far side (called also off side) of
a horse, that is, the right side, or the one opposite to the rider when
he mounts.
The distinction between the adjectival and adverbial use of far is
sometimes not easily discriminated.
By far, by much; by a great difference. -- Far between, with a long
distance (of space or time) between; at long intervals. "The
examinations are few and far between." Farrar.
Far, adv. 1. To a great extent or distance of space; widely; as, we are
separated far from each other.
2. To a great distance in time from any point; remotely; as, he pushed
his researches far into antiquity.
3. In great part; as, the day is far spent.
4. In a great proportion; by many degrees; very much; deeply; greatly.
Who can find a virtuous woman ? for her price is far above rubies.
Prov. xxxi. 10.
As far as, to the extent, or degree, that. See As far as, under As. --
Far off. (a) At a great distance, absolutely or relatively. (b) Distant
in sympathy or affection; alienated. "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who
some time were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Eph. ii.
13. -- Far other, different by a great degree; not the same; quite
unlike. Pope. -- Far and near, at a distance and close by; throughout a
whole region. -- Far and wide, distantly and broadly; comprehensively.
"Far and wide his eye commands." Milton. -- From far, from a great
distance; from a remote place.
Far often occurs in self-explaining compounds, such as far-extended,
far-reaching, far-spread.
<! p. 543 !>
Far"-a*bout` (?), n. A going out of the way; a digression. [Obs.]
Fuller.
Far"ad (?), n. [From Michael Faraday, the English electrician.] (Elec.)
The standard unit of electrical capacity; the capacity of a condenser
whose charge, having an electro-motive force of one volt, is equal to
the amount of electricity which, with the same electromotive force,
passes through one ohm in one second; the capacity, which, charged with
one coulomb, gives an electro-motive force of one volt.
Far*ad"ic (?), a. Of or pertaining to Michael Faraday, the
distinguished electrician; -- applied especially to induced currents of
electricity, as produced by certain forms of inductive apparatus, on
account of Faraday's investigations of their laws.
{ Far"a*dism (?), Far`a*di*za"tion (?), } n. (Med.) The treatment with
faradic or induced currents of electricity for remedial purposes.
Far"and (?), n. See Farrand, n.
Far"an*dams (?), n. A fabrik made of silk and wool or hair. Simmonds.
Far"ant*ly (?), a. [See Farrand.] Orderly; comely; respectable. [Obs.]
Halliwell.
Farce (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Farced (?), p. pr. & vb. n. Farcing
(&?;).] [F. Farcir, L. farcire; akin to Gr. &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to
fence in, stop up. Cf. Force to stuff, Diaphragm, Frequent, Farcy,
Farse.] 1. To stuff with forcemeat; hence, to fill with mingled
ingredients; to fill full; to stuff. [Obs.]
The first principles of religion should not be farced with school
points and private tenets.
Bp. Sanderson.
His tippet was aye farsed full of knives.
Chaucer.
2. To render fat. [Obs.]
If thou wouldst farce thy lean ribs.
B. Jonson.
3. To swell out; to render pompous. [Obs.]
Farcing his letter with fustian.
Sandys.
Farce, n. [F. farce, from L. farsus (also sometimes farctus), p. p. pf
farcire. See Farce, v. t.] 1. (Cookery) Stuffing, or mixture of viands,
like that used on dressing a fowl; forcemeat.
2. A low style of comedy; a dramatic composition marked by low humor,
generally written with little regard to regularity or method, and
abounding with ludicrous incidents and expressions.
Farce is that in poetry which "grotesque" is in a picture: the
persons and action of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners
false.
Dryden.
3. Ridiculous or empty show; as, a mere farce. "The farce of state."
Pope.
Farce"ment (?), n. Stuffing; forcemeat. [Obs.]
They spoil a good dish with . . . unsavory farcements.
Feltham.
Far"ci*cal (?), a. Pertaining to farce; appropriated to farce;
ludicrous; unnatural; unreal.
They deny the characters to be farcical, because they are
&?;&?;tually in in nature.
Gay.
-- Far"ci*cal*ly, adv. - Far"ci*cal*ness, n.
Far"ci*cal, a. Of or pertaining to the disease called farcy. See Farcy,
n.
Far"ci*lite (?), n. [Farce+- lite.] (Min.) Pudding stone. [Obs.]
Kirwan.
{ Far"ci*men (?), Far"cin (?), } n. (Far.) Same as Farcy.
Far"cing (?), n. (Cookery) Stuffing; forcemeat.
Farc"tate (?), a. [L. farctus, p. p. of farcire. See Farce, v. t.]
(Bot.) Stuffed; filled solid; as, a farctate leaf, stem, or pericarp;
-- opposed to tubular or hollow. [Obs.]
Far"cy (?), n. [F. farcin; cf. L. farciminum a disease of horses, fr.
farcire. See Farce.] (Far.) A contagious disease of horses, associated
with painful ulcerating enlargements, esp. upon the head and limbs. It
is of the same nature as glanders, and is often fatal. Called also
farcin, and farcimen.
Farcy, although more common in horses, is communicable to other animals
and to human beings.
Farcy bud, a hard, prominent swelling occurring upon the cutaneous
surface in farcy, due to the obstruction and inflammation of the
lymphatic vessels, and followed by ulceration. Youatt.
Fard (?), n. [F., prob. fr. OHG. gifarit, gifarwit p. p. of farwjan to
color, tinge, fr. farawa color, G. farbe.] Paint used on the face.
[Obs.] "Painted with French fard." J. Whitaker.
Fard, v. t. [F. farder to paint one's face.] To paint; -- said esp. of
one's face. [Obs.] Shenstone.
||Far`dage" (?), n. [F. See Fardel.] (Naut.) See Dunnage.
Far"del (?), n. [OF. fardel, F. fardeau; cf. Sp. fardel, fardillo,
fardo, LL. fardellus; prob. fr. Ar. fard one of the two parts of an
object divisible into two, hence, one of the two parts of a camel's
load. Cf. Furl.] A bundle or little pack; hence, a burden. [Obs.] Shak.
A fardel of never-ending misery and suspense.
Marryat.
Far"del, v. t. To make up in fardels. [Obs.] Fuller.
Far"ding-bag` (?), n. [Of uncertain origin; cf. Fardel.] The upper
stomach of a cow, or other ruminant animal; the rumen.
Far"ding*dale (?), n. A farthingale. [Obs.]
Far"ding*deal (?), n. [See Farthing, and Deal a part.] The fourth part
of an acre of land. [Obs.] [Written also farding dale, fardingale,
etc.]
Fare (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fared (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Faring.] [AS.
faran to travel, fare; akin to OS., Goth., & OHG. faran to travel, go,
D. varen, G. fahren, OFries., Icel., & Sw. fara, Dan. fare, Gr.
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; a way through, &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; a ferry, strait,
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to convey, &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to
go, march, &?;&?;&?;&?;&?; beyond, on the other side, &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;
to pass through, L. peritus experienced, portus port, Skr. par to bring
over. √78. Cf. Chaffer, Emporium, Far, Ferry, Ford, Peril, Port a
harbor, Pore, n.] 1. To go; to pass; to journey; to travel.
So on he fares, and to the border comes Of Eden.
Milton.
2. To be in any state, or pass through any experience, good or bad; to
be attended with any circummstances or train of events, fortunate or
unfortunate; as, he fared well, or ill.
So fares the stag among the enraged hounds.
Denham.
I bid you most heartily well to fare.
Robynson (More's Utopia).
So fared the knight between two foes.
Hudibras.
3. To be treated or entertained at table, or with bodily or social
comforts; to live.
There was a certain rich man which . . . fared sumptuously every
day.
Luke xvi. 19.
4. To happen well, or ill; -- used impersonally; as, we shall see how
it will fare with him.
So fares it when with truth falsehood contends.
Milton.
5. To behave; to conduct one's self. [Obs.]
She ferde [fared] as she would die.
Chaucer.
Fare (?), n. [AS. faru journey, fr. faran. See Fare, v.] 1. A journey;
a passage. [Obs.]
That nought might stay his fare.
Spenser.
2. The price of passage or going; the sum paid or due for conveying a
person by land or water; as, the fare for crossing a river; the fare in
a coach or by railway.
3. Ado; bustle; business. [Obs.]
The warder chid and made fare.
Chaucer.
4. Condition or state of things; fortune; hap; cheer.
What fare? what news abroad ?
Shak.
5. Food; provisions for the table; entertainment; as, coarse fare;
delicious fare. "Philosophic fare." Dryden.
6. The person or persons conveyed in a vehicle; as, a full fare of
passengers. A. Drummond.
7. The catch of fish on a fishing vessel.
Bill of fare. See under Bill. -- Fare indicator or register, a device
for recording the number of passengers on a street car, etc. -- Fare
wicket. (a) A gate or turnstile at the entrance of toll bridges,
exhibition grounds, etc., for registering the number of persons passing
it. (b) An opening in the door of a street car for purchasing tickets
of the driver or passing fares to the conductor. Knight.
Far"en (?), obs. p. p. of Fare, v. i. Chaucer.
Fare`well" (?), interj. [Fare (thou, you) + well.] Go well; good-by;
adieu; -- originally applied to a person departing, but by custom now
applied both to those who depart and those who remain. It is often
separated by the pronoun; as, fare you well; and is sometimes used as
an expression of separation only; as, farewell the year; farewell, ye
sweet groves; that is, I bid you farewell.
So farewell hope, and with hope, farewell fear.
Milton.
Fare thee well! and if forever, Still forever fare thee well.
Byron.
The primary accent is sometimes placed on the first syllable,
especially in poetry.
Fare`well" (?), n. 1. A wish of happiness or welfare at parting; the
parting compliment; a good-by; adieu.
2. Act of departure; leave-taking; a last look at, or reference to
something.
And takes her farewell of the glorious sun.
Shak.
Before I take my farewell of the subject.
Addison.
Fare"well` (?), a. Parting; valedictory; final; as, a farewell
discourse; his farewell bow.
Leans in his spear to take his farewell view.
Tickell.
Farewell rock (Mining), the Millstone grit; -- so called because no
coal is found worth working below this stratum. It is used for hearths
of furnaces, having power to resist intense heat. Ure.
Far"fet` (?), a. [Far + fet, p. p. of Fette.] Farfetched. [Obs.]
York with his farfet policy.
Shak.
Far"fetch` (?), v. t. [Far + fetch.] To bring from far; to seek out
studiously. [Obs.]
To farfetch the name of Tartar from a Hebrew word.
Fuller.
Far"fetch`, n. Anything brought from far, or brought about with
studious care; a deep strategem. [Obs.] "Politic farfetches." Hudibras.
Far"fetched` (?), a. 1. Brought from far, or from a remote place.
Every remedy contained a multitude of farfetched and heterogeneous
ingredients.
Hawthorne.
2. Studiously sought; not easily or naturally deduced or introduced;
forced; strained.
Fa*ri"na (f*r"n or f*r"n), n. [L., meal, flour, fr. far a sort of
grain, spelt; akin to E. barley.] 1. A fine flour or meal made from
cereal grains or from the starch or fecula of vegetables, extracted by
various processes, and used in cookery.
2. (Bot.) Pollen. [R.] Craig.
Far`i*na"ceous (?), a. [L. farinaceus.] 1. Consisting or made of meal
or flour; as, a farinaceous diet.
2. Yielding farina or flour; as, ffarinaceous seeds.
3. Like meal; mealy; pertaining to meal; as, a farinaceous taste,
smell, or appearance.
Far`i*nose" (?), a. [L. farinosus: cf. F. farineux.] 1. Yielding
farina; as, farinose substances.
2. (Bot. & Zoˆl.) Covered with a sort of white, mealy powder, as the
leaves of some poplars, and the body of certain insects; mealy.
Farl (?), v. t. Same as Furl. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
Far"lie (?), n. [OE. ferlish wonder, as adj., strange, sudden, fearful,
AS. frlc sudden. See Fear.] An unusual or unexpected thing; a wonder.
See Fearly. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Drayton.
Farm (?), n. [OE. ferme rent, lease, F. ferme, LL. firma, fr. L. firmus
firm, fast, firmare to make firm or fast. See Firm, a. & n.] 1. The
rent of land, -- originally paid by reservation of part of its
products. [Obs.]
2. The term or tenure of a lease of land for cultivation; a leasehold.
[Obs.]
It is great willfulness in landlords to make any longer farms to
their tenants.
Spenser.
3. The land held under lease and by payment of rent for the purpose of
cultivation.
4. Any tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes, under the
management of a tenant or the owner.
In English the ideas of a lease, a term, and a rent, continue to be in
a great degree inseparable, even from the popular meaning of a farm, as
they are entirely so from the legal sense. Burrill.
5. A district of country leased (or farmed) out for the collection of
the revenues of government.
The province was devided into twelve farms.
Burke.
6. (O. Eng. Law) A lease of the imposts on particular goods; as, the
sugar farm, the silk farm.
Whereas G. H. held the farm of sugars upon a rent of 10,000 marks
per annum.
State Trials (1196).
Farm (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Farmed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Farming.] 1.
To lease or let for an equivalent, as land for a rent; to yield the use
of to proceeds.
We are enforced to farm our royal realm.
Shak.
2. To give up to another, as an estate, a business, the revenue, etc.,
on condition of receiving in return a percentage of what it yields; as,
to farm the taxes.
To farm their subjects and their duties toward these.
Burke.
3. To take at a certain rent or rate.
4. To devote (land) to agriculture; to cultivate, as land; to till, as
a farm.
To farm let, To let to farm, to lease on rent.
Farm, v. i. To engage in the business of tilling the soil; to labor as
a farmer.
Farm"a*ble (?), a. Capable of being farmed.
Farm"er (?), n. [Cf. F. fermier.] One who farms; as: (a) One who hires
and cultivates a farm; a cultivator of leased ground; a tenant. Smart.
(b) One who is devoted to the tillage of the soil; one who cultivates a
farm; an agriculturist; a husbandman. (c) One who takes taxes, customs,
excise, or other duties, to collect, either paying a fixed annuual rent
for the privilege; as, a farmer of the revenues. (d) (Mining) The lord
of the field, or one who farms the lot and cope of the crown.
Farmer-general [F. fermier-general], one to whom the right of levying
certain taxes, in a particular district, was farmed out, under the
former French monarchy, for a given sum paid down. -- Farmers' satin, a
light material of cotton and worsted, used for coat linings. McElrath.
-- The king's farmer (O. Eng. Law), one to whom the collection of a
royal revenue was farmed out. Burrill.
Farm"er*ess, n. A woman who farms.
Farm"er*ship, n. Skill in farming.
Farm"er*y (?), n. The buildings and yards necessary for the business of
a farm; a homestead. [Eng.]
Farm"house`, n. A dwelling house on a farm; a farmer's residence.
Farm"ing, a. Pertaining to agriculture; devoted to, adapted to, or
engaged in, farming; as, farming tools; farming land; a farming
community.
Farm"ing, n. The business of cultivating land.
Far"most` (?), a. Most distant; farthest.
A spacious cave within its farmost part.
Dryden.
Farm"stead (?), n. A farm with the building upon it; a homestead on a
farm. Tennyson.
With its pleasant groves and farmsteads.
Carlyle.
Farm"stead*ing, n. A farmstead. [Scot.] Black.
Farm"yard` (?), n. The yard or inclosure attached to a barn, or the
space inclosed by the farm buildings.
Far"ness (?), n. [From Far, a.] The state of being far off; distance;
remoteness. [R.] Grew.
Far"o (?), n. [Said to be so called because the Egyptian king Pharaoh
was formerly represented upon one of the cards.] A gambling game at
cards, in which all the other players play against the dealer or
banker, staking their money upon the order in which the cards will lie
and be dealt from the pack.
Faro bank, the capital which the proprietor of a faro table ventures in
the game; also, the place where a game of faro is played. Hoyle.
Fa`ro*ese` (?), n. sing. & pl. An inhabitant, or, collectively,
inhabitants, of the Faroe islands.
Far"-off` (?), a. Remote; as, the far-off distance. Cf. Far-off, under
Far, adv.
Far*rag*i*nous (?), a. [See Farrago.] Formed of various materials;
mixed; as, a farraginous mountain. [R.] Kirwan.
A farraginous concurrence of all conditions, tempers, sexes, and
ages.
Sir T. Browne.
||Far*ra"go (?), n. [L. farrago, -aginis, mixed fodder for cattle,
||mash, medley, fr. far a sort of grain. See Farina.] A mass composed
||of various materials confusedly mixed; a medley; a mixture.
A confounded farrago of doubts, fears, hopes, wishes, and all the
flimsy furniture of a country miss's brain.
Sheridan.
Far"rand (?), n. [OE. farand beautiful; cf. Gael. farranta neat, stout,
stately; or perh. akin to E. fare.] Manner; custom; fashion; humor.
[Prov. Eng.] [Written also farand.] Grose.
Far`re*a"tion (?), n. [L. farreatio.] Same as Confarreation.
Far"ri*er (?), n. [OE. farrour, ferrer, OF. ferreor, ferrier, LL.
Ferrator, ferrarius equorum, from ferrare to shoe a horse, ferrum a
horseshoe, fr. L. ferrum iron. Cf. Ferreous.] 1. A shoer of horses; a
veterinary surgeon.
Far"ri*er, v. i. To practice as a farrier; to carry on the trade of a
farrier. [Obs.] Mortimer.
Far"ri*er*y (?), n. 1. The art of shoeing horses.
2. The art of preventing, curing, or mitigating diseases of horses and
cattle; the veterinary art.
3. The place where a smith shoes horses.
<! p. 544 !>
Far"row (fr"r), n. [AS. fearh a little pig; a akin to OHG. farh, farah,
pig, dim. farheli little pig, G. fercel, D. varken pig, Lith. parszas
OIr. orc, L. porcus, Gr. po`rkos. Cf. Pork.] A litter of pigs. Shak.
Far"row, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Farrowed (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Farrowing.] To bring forth (young); -- said only of swine. Tusser.
Far"row, a. [Cf. Scot. ferry cow a cow that is not with calf, D.
vaarkoe, vaars, heifer, G. f‰rse, AS. fearr bull, G. farre. Cf.
Heifer.] Not producing young in a given season or year; - - said only
of cows.
If a cow has had a calf, but fails in a subsequent year, she is said to
be farrow, or to go farrow.
Far"ry (?), n. A farrow. [Obs.] Perry.
Farse (?), n. [See Farce, n.] (Eccl.) An addition to, or a paraphrase
of, some part of the Latin service in the vernacular; -- common in
English before the Reformation.
Far"see`ing (?), a. 1. Able to see to a great distance; farsighted.
2. Having foresight as regards the future.
Far"sight`ed (?), a. 1. Seeing to great distance; hence, of good
judgment regarding the remote effects of actions; sagacious.
2. (Med.) Hypermetropic.
Far"sight`ed*ness, n. 1. Quality of bbeing farsighted.
2. (Med.) Hypermetropia.
Far"-stretched` (?), a. Stretched beyond ordinary limits.
Far"ther (f‰r"r), a., compar. of Far. [superl. Farthest (-st). See
Further.] [For farrer, OE. ferrer, compar. of far; confused with
further. Cf. Farthest.] 1. More remote; more distant than something
else.
2. Tending to a greater distance; beyond a certain point; additional;
further.
Before our farther way the fates allow.
Dryden.
Let me add a farther Truth.
Dryden.
Some farther change awaits us.
MIlton.
Far"ther, adv. 1. At or to a greater distance; more remotely; beyond;
as, let us rest with what we have, without looking farther.
2. Moreover; by way of progress in treating a subject; as, farther, let
us consider the probable event.
No farther, (used elliptically for) go no farther; say no more, etc.
It will be dangerous to go on. No farther !
Shak.
Far"ther, v. t. To help onward. [R.] See Further.
Far"ther*ance (?), n. [Obs.] See Furtherance.
Far"ther*more` (?), adv. [Obs.] See Furthermore.
Far"ther*most` (?), a. Most remote; farthest.
Far"thest (f‰r"st), a. Superl. of far. [See Farther and cf. Furthest]
Most distant or remote; as, the farthest degree. See Furthest.
Far"thest adv. At or to the greatest distance. See Furthest.
Far"thing (?), n. [OE. furthing, AS. feÛrung, fr. feÛra fourth, feÛr,
feÛwer, four. See Four.] 1. The fourth of a penny; a small copper coin
of Great Britain, being a cent in United States currency.
2. A very small quantity or value. [Obs.]
In her cup was no farthing seen of grease.
Chaucer.
3. A division of land. [Obs.]
Thirty acres make a farthing land; nine farthings a Cornish acre;
and four Cornish acres a knight's fee.
R. Carew.
Far"thin*gale (?), n. [OE. vardingale, fardingale, fr. OF. vertugale,
verdugade, F. vertugade, vertugadin, from Sp. verdugado, being named
from its hoops, fr. verdugo a young shoot of tree, fr. verde green, fr.
L. viridis. See Verdant.] A hoop skirt or hoop petticoat, or other
light, elastic material, used to extend the petticoat.
We'll revel it as bravely as the best, . . . With ruffs and cuffs,
and farthingales and things.
Shak.
||Fas"ces (?), n. pl. [L., pl. of fascis bundle; cf. fascia a band, and
||Gr. fa`kelos a bundle.], (Rom. Antiq.) A bundle of rods, having among
||them an ax with the blade projecting, borne before the Roman
||magistrates as a badge of their authority.
Fas"cet (?), n. (Glass Making) A wire basket on the end of a rod to
carry glass bottles, etc., to the annealing furnace; also, an iron rod
to be thrust into the mouths of bottles, and used for the same purpose;
-- called also pontee and punty.
||Fas"ci*a (?), n.; pl. FasciÊ (#). [L., a band: cf. It. fascia. See
||Fasces, and cf. Fess.] 1. A band, sash, or fillet; especially, in
||surgery, a bandage or roller.
2. (Arch.) A flat member of an order or building, like a flat band or
broad fillet; especially, one of the three bands which make up the
architrave, in the Ionic order. See Illust. of Column.
3. (Anat.) The layer of loose tissue, often containing fat, immediately
beneath the skin; the stronger layer of connective tissue covering and
investing all muscles; an aponeurosis.
4. (Zoˆl.) A broad well-defined band of color.
Fas"ci*al (?), a. 1. Pertaining to the fasces.
2. (Anat.) Relating to a fascia.
{ Fas"ci*ate (?), Fas"ci*a`ted (?), } a. [L. fasciatus, p. p. of
fasciare to envelop with bands, fr. fascia band. See Fasces.] 1. Bound
with a fillet, sash, or bandage.
2. (Bot.) (a) Banded or compacted together. (b) Flattened and laterally
widened, as are often the stems of the garden cockscomb.
3. (Zoˆl.) Broadly banded with color.
Fas`ci*a"tion, n. The act or manner of binding up; bandage; also, the
condition of being fasciated.
Fas"ci*cle (?), n. [L. fasciculus, dim. of fascis. See Fasces.] A small
bundle or collection; a compact cluster; as, a fascicle of fibers; a
fascicle of flowers or roots.
Fas"ci*cled (?), a. Growing in a bundle, tuft, or close cluster; as,
the fascicled leaves of the pine or larch; the fascicled roots of the
dahlia; fascicled muscle fibers; fascicled tufts of hair.
Fas*cic"u*lar (?), a. Pertaining to a fascicle; fascicled; as, a
fascicular root.
Fas*cic"u*lar*ly, adv. In a fascicled manner. Kirwan.
{ Fas*cic"u*late (?), Fas*cic"u*la`ted (?),} a. Grouped in a fascicle;
fascicled.
||Fas*cic"u*lus (?), n.; pl. Fasciculi (#). [L. See Fascicle.] 1. A
||little bundle; a fascicle.
2. A division of a book.
Fas"ci*nate (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fascinated (?), p. pr. & vb. n..
Fascinating (&?;).] [L. fascinare; cf. Gr.
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to slander, bewitch.] 1. To influence in
an uncontrollable manner; to operate on by some powerful or
irresistible charm; to bewitch; to enchant.
It has been almost universally believed that . . . serpents can
stupefy and fascinate the prey which they are desirous to obtain.
Griffith (Cuvier).
2. To excite and allure irresistibly or powerfully; to charm; to
captivate, as by physical or mental charms.
There be none of the passions that have been noted to fascinate or
bewitch but love and envy.
Bacon.
Syn. -- To charm; enrapture; captivate; enchant; bewitch; attract.
Fas`ci*na"tion (?), n. [L. fascinatio; cf. F. fascination.] 1. The act
of fascinating, bewitching, or enchanting; enchantment; witchcraft; the
exercise of a powerful or irresistible influence on the affections or
passions; unseen, inexplicable influence.
The Turks hang old rags . . . upon their fairest horses, and other
goodly creatures, to secure them against fascination.
Waller.
2. The state or condition of being fascinated.
3. That which fascinates; a charm; a spell.
There is a certain bewitchery or fascination in words.
South.
Fas*cine" (?), n. [F., fr. L. fascina a bundle of sticks, fr. fascis.
See Fasces.] (Fort. & Engin.) A cylindrical bundle of small sticks of
wood, bound together, used in raising batteries, filling ditches,
strengthening ramparts, and making parapets; also in revetments for
river banks, and in mats for dams, jetties, etc.
Fas"ci*nous (?), a. [L. fascinum witchcraft, akin to fascinare. See
Fascinate.] Caused or acting by witchcraft. [Obs.] "Fascinous
diseases." Harvey.
||Fas*ci"o*la (?), n.;pl. FasciolÊ (#). [See Fasciole.] (Anat.) A band
||of gray matter bordering the fimbria in the brain; the dentate
||convolution. Wilder.
Fas"ci*ole (?), n. [L. fasciola a little bandage. See Fascia.] (Zoˆl.)
A band of minute tubercles, bearing modified spines, on the shells of
spatangoid sea urchins. See Spatangoidea.
Fash (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fashed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fashing.]
[OF. faschier, F. f&?;cher, to anger, vex; cf. Pr. fasticar, fastigar,
fr. L. fastidium dilike. See Fastidious.] To vex; to tease; to trouble.
[Scot.]
Fash, n. Vexation; anxiety; care. [Scot.]
Without further fash on my part.
De Quincey.
Fash"ion (?), n. [OE. fasoun, facioun, shape, manner, F. facon, orig.,
a making, fr. L. factio a making, fr. facere to make. See Fact, Feat,
and cf. Faction.]
1. The make or form of anything; the style, shape, appearance, or mode
of structure; pattern, model; as, the fashion of the ark, of a coat, of
a house, of an altar, etc.; workmanship; execution.
The fashion of his countenance was altered.
Luke ix. 29.
I do not like the fashion of your garments.
Shak.
2. The prevailing mode or style, especially of dress; custom or
conventional usage in respect of dress, behavior, etiquette, etc.;
particularly, the mode or style usual among persons of good breeding;
as, to dress, dance, sing, ride, etc., in the fashion.
The innocent diversions in fashion.
Locke.
As now existing, fashion is a form of social regulation analogous
to constitutional government as a form of political regulation.
H. Spencer.
3. Polite, fashionable, or genteel life; social position; good
breeding; as, men of fashion.
4. Mode of action; method of conduct; manner; custom; sort; way. "After
his sour fashion." Shak.
After a fashion, to a certain extent; in a sort. -- Fashion piece
(Naut.), one of the timbers which terminate the transom, and define the
shape of the stern. -- Fashion plate, a pictorial design showing the
prevailing style or a new style of dress.
Fash"ion, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fashioned (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fashioning.] [Cf. F. faconner.] 1. To form; to give shape or figure to;
to mold.
Here the loud hammer fashions female toys.
Gay.
Ingenious art . . . Steps forth to fashion and refine the age.
Cowper.
2. To fit; to adapt; to accommodate; -- with to.
Laws ought to be fashioned to the manners and conditions of the
people.
Spenser.
3. To make according to the rule prescribed by custom.
Fashioned plate sells for more than its weight.
Locke.
4. To forge or counterfeit. [Obs.] Shak.
Fashioning needle (Knitting Machine), a needle used for widening or
narrowing the work and thus shaping it.
Fash"ion*a*ble (?), a. 1. Conforming to the fashion or established
mode; according with the prevailing form or style; as, a fashionable
dress.
2. Established or favored by custom or use; current; prevailing at a
particular time; as, the fashionable philosophy; fashionable opinions.
3. Observant of the fashion or customary mode; dressing or behaving
according to the prevailing fashion; as, a fashionable man.
4. Genteel; well-bred; as, fashionable society.
Time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting
guest by the hand.
Shak.
Fash"ion*a*ble, n. A person who conforms to the fashions; -- used
chiefly in the plural.
Fash"ion*a*ble*ness, n. State of being fashionable.
Fash"ion*a*bly, adv. In a fashionable manner.
Fash"ioned (?), a. Having a certain style or fashion; as old-fashioned;
new- fashioned.
Fash"ion*er (?), n. One who fashions, forms, ar gives shape to
anything. [R.]
The fashioner had accomplished his task, and the dresses were
brought home.
Sir W. Scott.
Fash"ion*ist (?), n. An obsequious follower of the modes and fashions.
[R.] Fuller.
Fash"ion*less, a. Having no fashion.
Fash"ion-mon`ger (?), n. One who studies the fashions; a fop; a dandy.
Marston.
Fash"ion-mon`ger*ing, a. Behaving like a fashion-monger. [R.] Shak.
Fas"sa*ite (?), n. (Min.) A variety of pyroxene, from the valley of
Fassa, in the Tyrol.
Fast (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fasted; p. pr. & vb. n. Fasting.] [AS.
fÊstan; akin to D. vasten, OHG. fastn, G. fasten, Icel. & Sw. fasta,
Dan. faste, Goth. fastan to keep, observe, fast, and prob. to E. fast
firm.] 1. To abstain from food; to omit to take nourishment in whole or
in part; to go hungry.
Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
Milton.
2. To practice abstinence as a religious exercise or duty; to abstain
from food voluntarily for a time, for the mortification of the body or
appetites, or as a token of grief, or humiliation and penitence.
Thou didst fast and weep for the child.
2 Sam. xii. 21.
Fasting day, a fast day; a day of fasting.
Fast, n. [OE. faste, fast; cf. AS. fÊsten, OHG. fasta, G. faste. See
Fast, v. i.] 1. Abstinence from food; omission to take nourishment.
Surfeit is the father of much fast.
Shak.
2. Voluntary abstinence from food, for a space of time, as a spiritual
discipline, or as a token of religious humiliation.
3. A time of fasting, whether a day, week, or longer time; a period of
abstinence from food or certain kinds of food; as, an annual fast.
Fast day, a day appointed for fasting, humiliation, and religious
offices as a means of invoking the favor of God. -- To break one's
fast, to put an end to a period of abstinence by taking food;
especially, to take one's morning meal; to breakfast. Shak.
Fast, a. [Compar. Faster (?); superl. Fastest (?).] [OE., firm, strong,
not loose, AS. f&?;st; akin to OS. fast, D. vast, OHG. fasti, festi, G.
fest, Icel. fastr, Sw. & Dan. fast, and perh. to E. fetter. The sense
swift comes from the idea of keeping close to what is pursued; a
Scandinavian use. Cf. Fast, adv., Fast, v., Avast.] 1. Firmly fixed;
closely adhering; made firm; not loose, unstable, or easily moved;
immovable; as, to make fast the door.
There is an order that keeps things fast.
Burke.
2. Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable;
strong.
Outlaws . . . lurking in woods and fast places.
Spenser.
3. Firm in adherence; steadfast; not easily separated or alienated;
faithful; as, a fast friend.
4. Permanent; not liable to fade by exposure to air or by washing;
durable; lasting; as, fast colors.
5. Tenacious; retentive. [Obs.]
Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells.
Bacon.
6. Not easily disturbed or broken; deep; sound.
All this while in a most fast sleep.
Shak.
7. Moving rapidly; quick in mition; rapid; swift; as, a fast horse.
8. Given to pleasure seeking; disregardful of restraint; reckless;
wild; dissipated; dissolute; as, a fast man; a fast liver. Thackeray.
Fast and loose, now cohering, now disjoined; inconstant, esp. in the
phrases to play at fast and loose, to play fast and loose, to act with
giddy or reckless inconstancy or in a tricky manner; to say one thing
and do another. "Play fast and loose with faith." Shak. - - Fast and
loose pulleys (Mach.), two pulleys placed side by side on a revolving
shaft, which is driven from another shaft by a band, and arranged to
disengage and reÎngage the machinery driven thereby. When the machinery
is to be stopped, the band is transferred from the pulley fixed to the
shaft to the pulley which revolves freely upon it, and vice versa. --
Hard and fast (Naut.), so completely aground as to be immovable. -- To
make fast (Naut.), to make secure; to fasten firmly, as a vessel, a
rope, or a door.
<! p. 545 !>
Fast (?), adv. [OE. faste firmly, strongly, quickly, AS. fÊste. See
Fast, a.] 1. In a fast, fixed, or firmly established manner; fixedly;
firmly; immovably.
We will bind thee fast.
Judg. xv. 13.
2. In a fast or rapid manner; quickly; swiftly; extravagantly; wildly;
as, to run fast; to live fast.
Fast by, or Fast beside, close or near to; near at hand.
He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk Into the wood fast by.
Milton.
Fast by the throne obsequious Fame resides.
Pope.
Fast, n. That which fastens or holds; especially, (Naut.) a mooring
rope, hawser, or chain; - - called, according to its position, a bow,
head, quarter, breast, or stern fast; also, a post on a pier around
which hawsers are passed in mooring.
Fas"ten (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fastened (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fastening (?).] [AS. fÊstnian; akin to OHG. festinn. See Fast, a.] 1.
To fix firmly; to make fast; to secure, as by a knot, lock, bolt, etc.;
as, to fasten a chain to the feet; to fasten a door or window.
2. To cause to hold together or to something else; to attach or unite
firmly; to cause to cleave to something , or to cleave together, by any
means; as, to fasten boards together with nails or cords; to fasten
anything in our thoughts.
The words Whig and Tory have been pressed to the service of many
successions of parties, with very different ideas fastened to them.
Swift.
3. To cause to take close effect; to make to tell; to lay on; as, to
fasten a blow. [Obs.] Dryden.
If I can fasten but one cup upon him.
Shak.
To fasten a charge, or a crime, upon, to make his guilt certain, or so
probable as to be generally believed. -- To fasten one's eyes upon, to
look upon steadily without cessation. Acts iii. 4.
Syn. -- To fix; cement; stick; link; affix; annex.
Fas"ten, v. i. To fix one's self; to take firm hold; to clinch; to
cling.
A horse leech will hardly fasten on a fish.
Sir T. Browne.
Fas"ten*er (?), n. One who, or that which, makes fast or firm.
Fas"ten*ing (?), n. Anything that binds and makes fast, as a lock,
catch, bolt, bar, buckle, etc.
Fast"er (?), n. One who abstains from food.
Fast"-hand`ed (?), a. Close- handed; close-fisted; covetous;
avaricious. [Obs.] Bacon.
||Fas"ti (?), n. pl. [L.] 1. The Roman calendar, which gave the days
||for festivals, courts, etc., corresponding to a modern almanac.
2. Records or registers of important events.
Fas*tid`i*os"i*ty (?), n. Fastidiousness; squeamishness. [Obs.] Swift.
Fas*tid"i*ous (?), a. [L. fastidiosus disdainful, fr. fastidium
loathing, aversion, perh. fr. fastus arrogance (of uncertain origin) +
taedium loathing. Cf. Tedious, Fash.] Difficult to please; delicate to
a fault; suited with difficulty; squeamish; as, a fastidious mind or
ear; a fastidious appetite.
Proud youth ! fastidious of the lower world.
Young.
Syn. -- Squeamish; critical; overnice; difficult; punctilious. --
Fastidious, Squeamish. We call a person fastidious when his taste or
feelings are offended by trifling defects or errors; we call him
squeamish when he is excessively nice or critical on minor points, and
also when he is overscrupulous as to questions of duty. "Whoever
examines his own imperfections will cease to be fastidious; whoever
restrains his caprice and scrupulosity will cease to be squeamish."
Crabb.
-- Fas*tid"i*ous*ly, adv. -- Fas*tid"i*ous*ness, n.
{ Fas*tig"i*ate (?), Fas*tig"i*a`ted (?), } a. [L. fastigium gable end,
top, height, summit.] 1. Narrowing towards the top.
2. (Bot.) Clustered, parallel, and upright, as the branches of the
Lombardy poplar; pointed.
3. (Zoˆl.) United into a conical bundle, or into a bundle with an
enlarged head, like a sheaf of wheat.
Fast"ish (?), a. Rather fast; also, somewhat dissipated. [Colloq.]
Thackeray.
Fast"ly, adv. Firmly; surely.
Fast"ness, n. [AS. fÊstnes, fr. fÊst fast. See Fast, a.] 1. The state
of being fast and firm; firmness; fixedness; security; faithfulness.
All . . . places of fastness [are] laid open.
Sir J. Davies.
2. A fast place; a stronghold; a fortress or fort; a secure retreat; a
castle; as, the enemy retired to their fastnesses in the mountains.
3. Conciseness of style. [Obs.] Ascham.
4. The state of being fast or swift.
Fas"tu*ous (?), a. [L. fastuosus, from fastus haughtiness, pride: cf.
F. fastueux.] Proud; haughty; disdainful. [Obs.] Barrow. --
Fas"tu*ous*ness, n. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.
Fat (?), n. [See Vat, n.] 1. A large tub, cistern, or vessel; a vat.
[Obs.]
The fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
Joel ii. 24.
2. A measure of quantity, differing for different commodities. [Obs.]
Hebert.
Fat, a. [Compar. Fatter (?); superl. Fattest (?).] [AS. ftt; akin to D.
vet, G. fett, feist, Icel. feitr, Sw. fet, Dan. fed, and perh. to Gr.
pi^dax spring, fountain, pidy`ein to gush forth, pi`wn fat, Skr. pi to
swell.] 1. Abounding with fat; as: (a) Fleshy; characterized by
fatness; plump; corpulent; not lean; as, a fat man; a fat ox. (b) Oily;
greasy; unctuous; rich; -- said of food.
2. Exhibiting the qualities of a fat animal; coarse; heavy; gross;
dull; stupid.
Making our western wits fat and mean.
Emerson.
Make the heart of this people fat.
Is. vi. 10.
3. Fertile; productive; as, a fat soil; a fat pasture.
4. Rich; producing a large income; desirable; as, a fat benefice; a fat
office; a fat job.
Now parson of Troston, a fat living in Suffolk.
Carlyle.
5. Abounding in riches; affluent; fortunate. [Obs.]
Persons grown fat and wealthy by long impostures.
Swift.
6. (Typog.) Of a character which enables the compositor to make large
wages; -- said of matter containing blank, cuts, or many leads, etc.;
as, a fat take; a fat page.
Fat lute, a mixture of pipe clay and oil for filling joints.
Fat (?), n. 1. (Physiol. Chem.) An oily liquid or greasy substance
making up the main bulk of the adipose tissue of animals, and widely
distributed in the seeds of plants. See Adipose tissue, under Adipose.
Animal fats are composed mainly of three distinct fats, tristearin,
tripalmitin, and triolein, mixed in varying proportions. As olein is
liquid at ordinary temperatures, while the other two fats are solid, it
follows that the consistency or hardness of fats depends upon the
relative proportion of the three individual fats. During the life of an
animal, the fat is mainly in a liquid state in the fat cells, owing to
the solubility of the two solid fats in the more liquid olein at the
body temperature. Chemically, fats are composed of fatty acid, as
stearic, palmitic, oleic, etc., united with glyceryl. In butter fat,
olein and palmitin predominate, mixed with another fat characteristic
of butter, butyrin. In the vegetable kingdom many other fats or
glycerides are to be found, as myristin from nutmegs, a glyceride of
lauric acid in the fat of the bay tree, etc.
2. The best or richest productions; the best part; as, to live on the
fat of the land.
3. (Typog.) Work. containing much blank, or its equivalent, and,
therefore, profitable to the compositor.
Fat acid. (Chem.) See Sebacic acid, under Sebacic. -- Fat series, Fatty
series (Chem.), the series of the paraffine hydrocarbons and their
derivatives; the marsh gas or methane series. -- Natural fats (Chem.),
the group of oily substances of natural occurrence, as butter, lard,
tallow, etc., as distinguished from certain fatlike substance of
artificial production, as paraffin. Most natural fats are essentially
mixtures of triglycerides of fatty acids.
Fat, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fatted (?); p. pr. & vb. n. atting (?).] [OE.
fatten, AS. fttian. See Fat, a., and cf. Fatten.] To make fat; to
fatten; to make plump and fleshy with abundant food; as, to fat fowls
or sheep.
We fat all creatures else to fat us.
Shak.
Fat, v. i. To grow fat, plump, and fleshy.
An old ox fats as well, and is as good, as a young one.
Mortimer.
Fa"tal, a. [L. fatalis, fr. fatum: cf. F. fatal. See Fate.] 1.
Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny; necessary;
inevitable. [R.]
These thing are fatal and necessary.
Tillotson.
It was fatal to the king to fight for his money.
Bacon.
2. Foreboding death or great disaster. [R.]
That fatal screech owl to our house That nothing sung but death to
us and ours.
Shak.
3. Causing death or destruction; deadly; mortal; destructive;
calamitous; as, a fatal wound; a fatal disease; a fatal day; a fatal
error.
Fa"tal*ism (?), n. [Cf. F. fatalisme.] The doctrine that all things are
subject to fate, or that they take place by inevitable necessity.
Fa"tal*ist (?), n. [Cf. F. fataliste.] One who maintains that all
things happen by inevitable necessity.
Fa`tal*is"tic (?), a. Implying, or partaking of the nature of,
fatalism.
Fa*tal"i*ty (?), n.;pl. Fatalities (#). [L. fatalitas: cf. F. fatalitÈ]
1. The state of being fatal, or proceeding from destiny; invincible
necessity, superior to, and independent of, free and rational control.
The Stoics held a fatality, and a fixed, unalterable course of
events.
South.
2. The state of being fatal; tendency to destruction or danger, as if
by decree of fate; mortaility.
The year sixty-three is conceived to carry with it the most
considerable fatality.
Ser T. Browne.
By a strange fatality men suffer their dissenting.
Eikon Basilike.
3. That which is decreed by fate or which is fatal; a fatal event.
Dryden.
Fa"tal*ly (?), adv. 1. In a manner proceeding from, or determined by,
fate. Bentley.
2. In a manner issuing in death or ruin; mortally; destructively; as,
fatally deceived or wounded.
Fa"tal*ness, n. Quality of being fatal. Johnson.
||Fa"ta Mor*ga"na (?). [It.; -- so called because this phenomenon was
||looked upon as the work of a fairy (It. fata) of the name of Morg·na.
||See Fairy.] A kind of mirage by which distant objects appear
||inverted, distorted, displaced, or multiplied. It is noticed
||particularly at the Straits of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily.
Fat"back` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) The menhaden.
Fat"-brained` (?), a. Dull of apprehension.
Fate (?), n. [L. fatum a prophetic declaration, oracle, what is
ordained by the gods, destiny, fate, fr. fari to speak: cf. OF. fat.
See Fame, Fable, Ban, and cf. 1st Fay, Fairy.] 1. A fixed decree by
which the order of things is prescribed; the immutable law of the
universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all existence is
determined and conditioned.
Necessity and chance Approach not me; and what I will is fate.
Milton.
Beyond and above the Olympian gods lay the silent, brooding,
everlasting fate of which victim and tyrant were alike the
instruments.
Froude.
2. Appointed lot; allotted life; arranged or predetermined event;
destiny; especially, the final lot; doom; ruin; death.
The great, th'important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.
Addison.
Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are
overthrown.
Shak.
The whizzing arrow sings, And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its
wings.
Pope.
3. The element of chance in the affairs of life; the unforeseen and
unestimated conitions considered as a force shaping events; fortune;
esp., opposing circumstances against which it is useless to struggle;
as, fate was, or the fates were, against him.
A brave man struggling in the storms of fate.
Pope.
Sometimes an hour of Fate's serenest weather strikes through our
changeful sky its coming beams.
B. Taylor.
4. pl. [L. Fata, pl. of fatum.] (Myth.) The three goddesses, Clotho,
Lachesis, and Atropos, sometimes called the Destinies, or ParcÊwho were
supposed to determine the course of human life. They are represented,
one as holding the distaff, a second as spinning, and the third as
cutting off the thread.
Among all nations it has been common to speak of fate or destiny as a
power superior to gods and men -- swaying all things irresistibly. This
may be called the fate of poets and mythologists. Philosophical fate is
the sum of the laws of the universe, the product of eternal
intelligence and the blind properties of matter. Theological fate
represents Deity as above the laws of nature, and ordaining all things
according to his will -- the expression of that will being the law.
Krauth- Fleming.
Syn. -- Destiny; lot; doom; fortune; chance.
Fat"ed (?), p. p. & a. 1. Decreed by fate; destined; doomed; as, he was
fated to rule a factious people.
One midnight Fated to the purpose.
Shak.
2. Invested with the power of determining destiny. [Obs.] "The fated
sky." Shak.
3. Exempted by fate. [Obs. or R.] Dryden.
Fate"ful (?), a. . Having the power of serving or accomplishing fate.
"The fateful steel." J. Barlow.
2. Significant of fate; ominous.
The fateful cawings of the crow.
Longfellow.
-- Fate"ful*ly, adv.- Fate"ful*ness, n.
Fat"head` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) (a) A cyprinoid fish of the Mississippi
valley (Pimephales promelas); -- called also black-headed minnow. (b) A
labroid food fish of California; the redfish.
Fa"ther (f‰"r), n. [OE. fader, AS. fÊder; akin to OS. fadar, D. vader,
OHG. fatar, G. vater, Icel. fair Sw. & Dan. fader, OIr. athir, L.
pater, Gr. path`r, Skr. pitr, perh. fr. Skr. p protect. √75, 247.
Cf. Papa, Paternal, Patriot, Potential, Pablum.] 1. One who has
begotten a child, whether son or daughter; a generator; a male parent.
A wise son maketh a glad father.
Prov. x. 1.
2. A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially,
a first ancestor; a founder of a race or family; -- in the plural,
fathers, ancestors.
David slept with his fathers.
1 Kings ii. 10.
Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Rom. iv. 16.
3. One who performs the offices of a parent by maintenance, affetionate
care, counsel, or protection.
I was a father to the poor.
Job xxix. 16.
He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house.
Gen. xiv. 8.
4. A respectful mode of address to an old man.
And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him [Elisha], . . . and
said, O my father, my father!
2 Kings xiii. 14.
5. A senator of ancient Rome.
6. A dignitary of the church, a superior of a convent, a confessor
(called also father confessor), or a priest; also, the eldest member of
a profession, or of a legislative assembly, etc.
Bless you, good father friar !
Shak.
7. One of the chief ecclesiastical authorities of the first centuries
after Christ; -- often spoken of collectively as the Fathers; as, the
Latin, Greek, or apostolic Fathers.
8. One who, or that which, gives origin; an originator; a producer,
author, or contriver; the first to practice any art, profession, or
occupation; a distinguished example or teacher.
The father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
Gen. iv. 21.
Might be the father, Harry, to that thought.
Shak.
The father of good news.
Shak.
9. The Supreme Being and Creator; God; in theology, the first person in
the Trinity.
Our Father, which art in heaven.
Matt. vi. 9.
Now had the almighty Father from above . . . Bent down his eye.
Milton.
Adoptive father, one who adopts the child of another, treating it as
his own. -- Apostolic father, Conscript fathers, etc. See under
Apostolic, Conscript, etc. -- Father in God, a title given to bishops.
-- Father of lies, the Devil. -- Father of the bar, the oldest
practitioner at the bar. -- Fathers of the city, the aldermen. --
Father of the Faithful. (a) Abraham. Rom. iv. Gal. iii. 6- 9. (b)
Mohammed, or one of the sultans, his successors. -- Father of the
house, the member of a legislative body who has had the longest
continuous service. -- Most Reverend Father in God, a title given to
archbishops and metropolitans, as to the archbishops of Canterbury and
York. -- Natural father, the father of an illegitimate child. --
Putative father, one who is presumed to be the father of an
illegitimate child; the supposed father. -- Spiritual father. (a) A
religious teacher or guide, esp. one instrumental in leading a soul to
God. (b) (R. C. Ch.) A priest who hears confession in the sacrament of
penance. -- The Holy Father (R. C. Ch.), the pope.
Fa"ther (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fathered (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fathering.] 1. To make one's self the father of; to beget.
Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base.
Shak.
2. To take as one's own child; to adopt; hence, to assume as one's own
work; to acknowledge one's self author of or responsible for (a
statement, policy, etc.).
Men of wit Often fathered what he writ.
Swift.
3. To provide with a father. [R.]
Think you I am no stronger than my sex, Being so fathered and so
husbanded ?
Shak.
To father on or upon, to ascribe to, or charge upon, as one's offspring
or work; to put or lay upon as being responsible. "Nothing can be so
uncouth or extravagant, which may not be fathered on some fetch of wit,
or some caprice of humor." Barrow.
<! p. 546 !>
Fa"ther*hood (?), n. The state of being a father; the character or
authority of a father; paternity.
Fa"ther-in-law` (?), n.; pl. Fathers-in-law (&?;). The father of one's
husband or wife; -- correlative to son-in-law and daughter- in-law.
A man who marries a woman having children already, is sometimes, though
erroneously, called their father-in-law.
Fa"ther*land" (?), n. [Imitated fr. D. vaderland. See Father, and
Land.] One's native land; the native land of one's fathers or
ancestors.
Fa"ther-lash`er (?), n. (Zoˆl.) A European marine fish (Cottus
bubalis), allied to the sculpin; -- called also lucky proach.
Fa"ther*less, a. 1. Destitute of a living father; as, a fatherless
child.
2. Without a known author. Beau. & Fl.
Fa"ther*less*ness, n. The state of being without a father.
Fa"ther*li*ness (?), n. [From Fatherly.] The qualities of a father;
parantal kindness, care, etc.
Fa"ther long"legs` (?). (Zoˆl.) See Daddy longlegs, 2.
Fa"ther*ly, a. 1. Like a father in affection and care; paternal;
tender; protecting; careful.
You have showed a tender, fatherly regard.
Shak.
2. Of or pertaining to a father.
Fa"ther*ship, n. The state of being a father; fatherhood; paternity.
Fath"om (f"m), n. [OE. fadme, fame, AS. fÊm fathom, the embracing
arms; akin to OS. famos the outstretched arms, D. vadem, vaam, fathom,
OHG. fadom, fadum, G. faden fathom, thread, Icel. famr fathom, Sw.
famn, Dan. favn; cf. Gr. &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; to spread out,
&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; outspread, flat, L. patere to lie open, extend.
Cf. Patent, Petal.] 1. A measure of length, containing six feet; the
space to which a man can extend his arms; -- used chiefly in measuring
cables, cordage, and the depth of navigable water by soundings.
2. The measure or extant of one's capacity; depth, as of intellect;
profundity; reach; penetration. [R.]
Another of his fathom they have none To lead their business.
Shak.
Fath"om, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fathomed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fathoming.]
1. To encompass with the arms extended or encircling; to measure by
throwing the arms about; to span. [Obs.] Purchas.
2. To measure by a sounding line; especially, to sound the depth of; to
penetrate, measure, and comprehend; to get to the bottom of. Dryden.
The page of life that was spread out before me seemed dull and
commonplace, only because I had not fathomed its deeper import.
Hawthotne.
Fath"om*a*ble (?), a. Capable of being fathomed.
Fath"om*er (?), n. One who fathoms.
Fath"om*less, a. 1. Incapable of being fathomed; immeasurable; that can
not be sounded.
And buckle in a waist most fathomless.
Shak.
2. Incomprehensible.
The fathomless absurdity.
Milton.
Fa*tid"i*cal (?), a. [L. fatidicus; fatum fate + dicere to say, tell.]
Having power to foretell future events; prophetic; fatiloquent; as, the
fatidical oak. [R.] Howell. -- Fa*tid"i*cal*ly, adv.
Fa*tif"er*ous (?), a. [L. fatifer; fatum fate + ferre to bear, bring.]
Fate-bringing; deadly; mortal; destructive. [R.] Johnson.
Fat"i*ga*ble (?), a. [L. fatigabilis: cf. F. fatigable. See Fatigue.]
Easily tired. [Obs.] Bailey.
Fat"i*gate (?), a. [L. fatigatus, p. p. of fatigare. See Fatigue.]
Wearied; tired; fatigued. [Obs.]
Requickened what in flesh was fatigate.
Shak.
Fat"i*gate (?), v. t. To weary; to tire; to fatigue. [Obs.] Sir T.
Elyot.
Fat`i*ga"tion (?), n. [L. fatigatio: cf. OF. fatigation.] Weariness.
[Obs.] W. Montaqu.
Fa*tigue" (?), n. [F., fr. fatiguer to fatigue, L. fatigare; cf. L.
affatim sufficiently.] 1. Weariness from bodily labor or mental
exertion; lassitude or exhaustion of strength.
2. The cause of weariness; labor; toil; as, the fatigues of war.
Dryden.
3. The weakening of a metal when subjected to repeated vibrations or
strains.
Fatigue call (Mil.), a summons, by bugle or drum, to perform fatigue
duties. -- Fatigue dress, the working dress of soldiers. -- Fatigue
duty (Mil.), labor exacted from soldiers aside from the use of arms.
Farrow. -- Fatigue party, a party of soldiers on fatigue duty.
Fa*tigue", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fatigued (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Fatiguing,
n.] [Cf. F. fatiguer. See Fatigue, n.] To weary with labor or any
bodily or mental exertion; to harass with toil; to exhaust the strength
or endurance of; to tire.
Syn. -- To jade; tire; weary; bore. See Jade.
Fa*til"o*quent (?), a. [See Fatiloquist.] Prophetic; fatidical. [Obs.]
Blount.
Fa*til"o*quist (?), n. [L. fatiloquus declaring fate; fatum fate+ Loqui
to speak.] A fortune teller.
{ Fat"i*mite (?), Fat"i*mide (?) }, a. (Hist.) Descended from Fatima,
the daughter and only child of Mohammed. -- n. A descendant of Fatima.
Fa*tis"cence (?), n. [L. fatiscense, p. pr. of fatiscere to gape or
crack open.] A gaping or opening; state of being chinky, or having
apertures. Kirwan.
Fat"-kid`neyed (?), a. Gross; lubberly.
Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal !
Shak.
Fat"ling (?), n. [Fat + - ling.] A calf, lamb, kid, or other young
animal fattened for slaughter; a fat animal; -- said of such animals as
are used for food.
He sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
2 Sam. vi. 13.
Fat"ly, adv. Grossly; greasily.
Fat"ner (?), n. One who fattens. [R.] See Fattener. Arbuthnit.
Fat"ness, n. 1. The quality or state of being fat, plump, or full-fed;
corpulency; fullness of flesh.
Their eyes stand out with fatness.
Ps. lxxiii. 7.
2. Hence; Richness; fertility; fruitfulness.
Rich in the fatness of her plenteous soil.
Rowe.
3. That which makes fat or fertile.
The clouds drop fatness.
Philips.
Fat"ten (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fattened (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fattening (?).] [See Fat, v. t.] 1. To make fat; to feed for slaughter;
to make fleshy or plump with fat; to fill full; to fat.
2. To make fertile and fruitful; to enrich; as, to fatten land; to
fatten fields with blood. Dryden.
Fat"ten, v. i. To grow fat or corpulent; to grow plump, thick, or
fleshy; to be pampered.
And villains fatten with the brave man's labor.
Otway.
Fat"ten*er (?), n. One who, or that which, fattens; that which gives
fatness or fertility.
Fat"ti*ness (?), n. State or quality of being fatty.
Fat"tish (?), a. Somewhat fat; inclined to fatness.
Coleridge, a puffy, anxious, obstructed-looking, fattish old man.
Carlyle.
Fat"ty (?), a. Containing fat, or having the qualities of fat; greasy;
gross; as, a fatty substance.
Fatty acid (Chem.), any one of the paraffin series of monocarbonic
acids, as formic acid, acetic, etc.; -- so called because the higher
members, as stearic and palmitic acids, occur in the natural fats, and
are themselves fatlike substances. -- Fatty clays. See under Clay. --
Fatty degeneration (Med.), a diseased condition, in which the oil
globules, naturally present in certain organs, are so multiplied as
gradually to destroy and replace the efficient parts of these organs.
-- Fatty heart, Fatty liver, etc. (Med.), a heart, liver, etc., which
have been the subjects of fatty degeneration or infiltration. -- Fatty
infiltration (Med.), a condition in which there is an excessive
accumulation of fat in an organ, without destruction of any essential
parts of the latter. -- Fatty tumor (Med.), a tumor consisting of fatty
or adipose tissue; lipoma.
Fa*tu"i*tous (?), a. Stupid; fatuous.
Fa*tu"i*ty (?), n. [L. fatuitas, fr. fatuus foolish: cf. F. fatuitÈ Cf.
Fatuous.] Weakness or imbecility of mind; stupidity.
Those many forms of popular fatuity.
I Taylor.
Fat"u*ous (?), a. [L. fatuus.] 1. Feeble in mind; weak; silly; stupid;
foolish; fatuitous. Glanvill.
2. Without reality; illusory, like the ignis fatuus.
Thence fatuous fires and meteors take their birth.
Danham.
Fat"-wit`ted (?), a. Dull; stupid. Shak.
||Fau`bourg" (f`br"; E. f"brg), n. [F.] A suburb of a French city;
||also, a district now within a city, but formerly without its walls.
Fau"cal (?), a. [L. fauces throat.] Pertaining to the fauces, or
opening of the throat; faucial; esp., (Phon.) produced in the fauces,
as certain deep guttural sounds found in the Semitic and some other
languages.
Ayin is the most difficult of the faucals.
I. Taylor (The Alphabet).
||Fau"ces (?), n. pl. [L.] 1. (Anat.) The narrow passage from the mouth
||to the pharynx, situated between the soft palate and the base of the
||tongue; -- called also the isthmus of the fauces. On either side of
||the passage two membranous folds, called the pillars of the fauces,
||inclose the tonsils.
2. (Bot.) The throat of a calyx, corolla, etc.
3. (Zoˆl.) That portion of the interior of a spiral shell which can be
seen by looking into the aperture.
Fau"cet (?), n. [F. fausset, perh. fr. L. fauces throat.] 1. A fixture
for drawing a liquid, as water, molasses, oil, etc., from a pipe, cask,
or other vessel, in such quantities as may be desired; -- called also
tap, and cock. It consists of a tubular spout, stopped with a movable
plug, spigot, valve, or slide.
2. The enlarged end of a section of pipe which receives the spigot end
of the next section.
Fau"chion (?), n. See Falchion. [Obs.]
Fau"cial (?), a. (Anat.) Pertaining to the fauces; pharyngeal.
Faugh (?), interj. [Cf. Foh.] An exclamation of contempt, disgust, or
abhorrence.
Faul"chion (?), n. See Falchion.
Faul"con (?), n. (Zoˆl.) See Falcon.
Fauld (?), n. The arch over the dam of a blast furnace; the tymp arch.
Faule (?), n. A fall or falling band. [Obs.]
These laces, ribbons, and these faules.
Herrick.
Fault (?), n. [OE. faut, faute, F. faute (cf. It., Sp., & Pg. falta),
fr. a verb meaning to want, fail, freq., fr. L. fallere to deceive. See
Fail, and cf. Default.] 1. Defect; want; lack; default.
One, it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend.
Shak.
2. Anything that fails, that is wanting, or that impairs excellence; a
failing; a defect; a blemish.
As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the
fault.
Shak.
3. A moral failing; a defect or dereliction from duty; a deviation from
propriety; an offense less serious than a crime.
4. (Geol. & Mining) (a) A dislocation of the strata of the vein. (b) In
coal seams, coal rendered worthless by impurities in the seam; as,
slate fault, dirt fault, etc. Raymond.
5. (Hunting) A lost scent; act of losing the scent.
Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled, With much ado,
the cold fault cleary out.
Shak.
6. (Tennis) Failure to serve the ball into the proper court.
At fault, unable to find the scent and continue chase; hence, in
trouble or embarrassment, and unable to proceed; puzzled; thrown off
the track. -- To find fault, to find reason for blaming or complaining;
to express dissatisfaction; to complain; -- followed by with before the
thing complained of; but formerly by at. "Matter to find fault at."
Robynson (More's Utopia).
Syn. -- -- Error; blemish; defect; imperfection; weakness; blunder;
failing; vice. -- Fault, Failing, Defect, Foible. A fault is positive,
something morally wrong; a failing is negative, some weakness or
falling short in a man's character, disposition, or habits; a defect is
also negative, and as applied to character is the absence of anything
which is necessary to its completeness or perfection; a foible is a
less important weakness, which we overlook or smile at. A man may have
many failings, and yet commit but few faults; or his faults and
failings may be few, while his foibles are obvious to all. The faults
of a friend are often palliated or explained away into mere defects,
and the defects or foibles of an enemy exaggerated into faults. "I have
failings in common with every human being, besides my own peculiar
faults; but of avarice I have generally held myself guiltless." Fox.
"Presumption and self-applause are the foibles of mankind." Waterland.
Fault (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Faulted; p. pr. & vb. n. Faulting.] 1.
To charge with a fault; to accuse; to find fault with; to blame. [Obs.]
For that I will not fault thee.
Old Song.
2. (Geol.) To interrupt the continuity of (rock strata) by displacement
along a plane of fracture; -- chiefly used in the p. p.; as, the coal
beds are badly faulted.
Fault, v. i. To err; to blunder, to commit a fault; to do wrong. [Obs.]
If after Samuel's death the people had asked of God a king, they
had not faulted.
Latimer.
Fault"er (?), n. One who commits a fault. [Obs.]
Behold the faulter here in sight.
Fairfax.
Fault"-find`er (?), n. One who makes a practice of discovering others'
faults and censuring them; a scold.
Fault"-find`ing, n. The act of finding fault or blaming; -- used
derogatively. Also Adj.
Fault"ful (?), a. Full of faults or sins. Shak.
Fault"i*ly (?), adv. In a faulty manner.
Fault"i*ness, n. Quality or state of being faulty.
Round, even to faultiness.
Shak.
Fault"ing, n. (Geol.) The state or condition of being faulted; the
process by which a fault is produced.
Fault"less, a. Without fault; not defective or imperfect; free from
blemish; free from incorrectness, vice, or offense; perfect; as, a
faultless poem.
Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor
is, nor e'er shall be.
Pope.
Syn. -- Blameless; spotless; perfect. See Blameless.
-- Fault"less*ly, adv.- Fault"less*ness, n.
Fault"y (?), a. 1. Containing faults, blemishes, or defects; imperfect;
not fit for the use intended.
Created once So goodly and erect, though faulty since.
Milton.
2. Guilty of a fault, or of faults; hence, blamable; worthy of censure.
Shak.
The king doth speak . . . as one which is faulty.
2 Sam. xiv. 13.
Faun (?), n. [L. Faunus, fr. favere to be favorable. See Favor.] (Rom.
Myth.) A god of fields and shipherds, diddering little from the satyr.
The fauns are usually represented as half goat and half man.
Satyr or Faun, or Sylvan.
Milton.
Fau"na (?), n. [NL.: cf. F. faune. See Faun.] (Zoˆl.) The animals of
any given area or epoch; as, the fauna of America; fossil fauna; recent
fauna.
Fau"nal (?), a. Relating to fauna.
Fau"nist (?), n. One who describes the fauna of country; a naturalist.
Gilbert White.
||Fau"nus (?), n.;pl. Fauni (#). [L.] (Myth.) See Faun.
Fau"sen (?), n. [Cf. W. llysowen eel, ll sounding in Welsh almost like
fl.] (Zoˆl.) A young eel. [Prov. Eng.]
||Fausse`-braye" (?), n. [F. fausse- braie.] (Mil.) A second rampart,
||exterior to, and parallel to, the main rampart, and considerably
||below its level.
||Fau`teuil" (?), n. [F. See Faldistory.] 1. An armchair; hence
||(because the members sit in fauteuils or armchairs), membership in
||the French Academy.
2. Chair of a presiding officer.
Fau"tor (?), n. [L., contr. fr. favitor, fr. favere to be favorable:
cf. F. fauteur. See Favor.] A favorer; a patron; one who gives
countenance or support; an abettor. [Obs.]
The king and the fautors of his proceedings.
Latimer.
Fau"tress (?), n. [L. fauutrix: cf. F. fautrice.] A patroness. [Obs.]
Chapman.
||Fau`vette" (?), n. [F., dim. fr. fauve fawn-colored.] (Zoˆl.) A small
||singing bird, as the nightingale and warblers.
<! p. 547 !>
||Faux (?), n.; pl. Fauces (#). [L.] See Fauces.
||faux` pas" (?). [F. See False, and Pas.] A false step; a mistake or
||wrong measure.
Fa*vag"i*nous (?), a. [L. favus a honeycomb.] Formed like, or
resembling, a honeycomb.
Fa"vas (?), n. See Favus, n., 2. Fairholt.
Fa"vel (?), a. [OF. fauvel, favel, dim. of F. fauve; of German oigin.
See Fallow, a.] Yellow; fal&?;ow; dun. [Obs.] Wright.
Fa"vel, n. A horse of a favel or dun color.
To curry favel. See To curry favor, under Favor, n.
Fa"vel, n. [OF. favele, fr. L. fabella short fable, dim. of fabula. See
Fable.] Flattery; cajolery; deceit. [Obs.] Skeat.
||Fa*vel"la (?), n. [NL., prob. from L. favus a honeycomb.] (Bot.) A
||group of spores arranged without order and covered with a thin
||gelatinous envelope, as in certain delicate red algÊ.
Fa*ve"o*late (?), a. [L. favus honeycomb.] Honeycomb; having cavities
or cells, somewhat resembling those of a honeycomb; alveolate; favose.
Fa*vil"lous (?), a. [L. favilla sparkling or glowing ashes.] Of or
pertaining to ashes. [Obs.]
Light and favillous particles.
Sir T. Browne.
Fa*vo"ni*an (?), a. [L. Favonius the west wind.] Pertaining to the west
wind; soft; mild; gentle.
Fa"vor (?), n. [Written also favour.] [OF. favor, F. faveur, L. favor,
fr. favere to be favorable, cf. Skr. bhvaya to further, foster,
causative of bh to become, be. Cf. Be. In the phrase to curry favor,
favor is prob. for favel a horse. See 2d Favel.] 1. Kind regard;
propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good
will.
Hath crawled into the favor of the king.
Shak.
2. The act of countenancing, or the condition of being countenanced, or
regarded propitiously; support; promotion; befriending.
But found no favor in his lady's eyes.
Dryden.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God
and man.
Luke ii. 52.
3. A kind act or office; kindness done or granted; benevolence shown by
word or deed; an act of grace or good will, as distinct from justice or
remuneration.
Beg one favor at thy gracious hand.
Shak.
4. Mildness or mitigation of punishment; lenity.
I could not discover the lenity and favor of this sentence.
Swift.
5. The object of regard; person or thing favored.
All these his wondrous works, but chiefly man, His chief delight
and favor.
Milton.
6. A gift or represent; something bestowed as an evidence of good will;
a token of love; a knot of ribbons; something worn as a token of
affection; as, a marriage favor is a bunch or knot of white ribbons or
white flowers worn at a wedding.
Wear thou this favor for me, and stick it in thy cap.
Shak.
7. Appearance; look; countenance; face. [Obs.]
This boy is fair, of female favor.
Shak.
8. (Law) Partiality; bias. Bouvier.
9. A letter or epistle; -- so called in civility or compliment; as,
your favor of yesterday is received.
10. pl. Love locks. [Obs.] Wright.
Challenge to the favor or for favor (Law), the challenge of a juror on
grounds not sufficient to constitute a principal challenge, but
sufficient to give rise to a probable suspicion of favor or bias, such
as acquaintance, business relation, etc. See Principal challenge, under
Challenge. -- In favor of, upon the side of; favorable to; for the
advantage of. -- In favor with, favored, countenanced, or encouraged
by. -- To curry favor [see the etymology of Favor, above], to seek to
gain favor by flattery, caresses, kindness, or officious civilities. --
With one's favor, or By one's favor, with leave; by kind permission.
But, with your favor, I will treat it here.
Dryden.
Syn. -- Kindness; countenance; patronage; support; lenity; grace; gift;
present; benefit.
Fa"vor, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Favored (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Favoring.]
[Written also favour.] [Cf. OF. favorer, favorir. See Favor, n.] 1. To
regard with kindness; to support; to aid, or to have the disposition to
aid, or to wish success to; to be propitious to; to countenance; to
treat with consideration or tenderness; to show partiality or unfair
bias towards.
O happy youth! and favored of the skies.
Pope.
He that favoreth Joab, . . . let him go after Joab.
2 Sam. xx. 11.
[The painter] has favored her squint admirably.
Swift.
2. To afford advantages for success to; to facilitate; as, a weak place
favored the entrance of the enemy.
3. To resemble in features; to have the aspect or looks of; as, the
child favors his father.
The porter owned that the gentleman favored his master.
Spectator.
Fa"vor*a*ble (?), a. [Written also favourable.] [F. favorable, L.
favorabilis favored, popular, pleasing, fr. favor. See Favor, n.] 1.
Full of favor; favoring; manifesting partiality; kind; propitious;
friendly.
Lend favorable ears to our request.
Shak.
Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land.
Ps. lxxxv. 1.
2. Conducive; contributing; tending to promote or facilitate;
advantageous; convenient.
A place very favorable for the making levies of men.
Clarendon.
The temper of the climate, favorable to generation, health, and
long life.
Sir W. Temple.
3. Beautiful; well-favored. [Obs.] Spenser.
-- Fa"vora*ble*ness, n. -- Fa"vor*a*bly, sdv.
The faborableness of the present times to all extertions in the
cause of liberty.
Burke.
Fa"vored (?), a. 1. Countenanced; aided; regarded with kidness; as, a
favored friend.
2. Having a certain favor or appearance; featured; as, well-favored;
hard-favored, etc.
Fa"vored*ly (?), adv. In a favored or a favorable manner; favorably.
[Obs.] Deut. xvii. 1. Arscham.
Fa"vored*ness, n. Appearance. [Obs.]
Fa"vor*er (?), n. One who favors; one who regards with kindness or
friendship; a well-wisher; one who assists or promotes success or
prosperity. [Written also favourer.]
And come to us as favorers, not as foes.
Shak.
Fa"vor*ess (?), n. A woman who favors or gives countenance. [Written
also fovouress.]
Fa"vor*ing, a. That favors. -- Fa"vor*ing*ly, adv.
Fa"vor*ite (?), n. [OF. favorit favored, F. favori, fem. favorite, p.
p. of OF. favorir, cf. It. favorito, frm. favorita, fr. favorire to
favor. See Favor.] 1. A person or thing regarded with peculiar favor;
one treated with partiality; one preferred above others; especially,
one unduly loved, trusted, and enriched with favors by a person of high
rank or authority.
Committing to a wicked favorite All public cares.
Milton.
2. pl. Short curls dangling over the temples; -- fashionable in the
reign of Charles II. [Obs.] Farquhar.
3. (Sporting) The competitor (as a horse in a race) that is judged most
likely to win; the competitor standing highest in the betting.
Fa"vor*ite, a. Regarded with particular affection, esteem, or
preference; as, a favorite walk; a favorite child. "His favorite
argument." Macaulay.
Fa"vor*it*ism (?), n. [Cf. F. favoritisme.] The disposition to favor
and promote the interest of one person or family, or of one class of
men, to the neglect of others having equal claims; partiality.
A spirit of favoritism to the Bank of the United States.
A. Hamilton.
Fa"vor*less, a. 1. Unfavored; not regarded with favor; having no
countenance or support.
2. Unpropitious; unfavorable. [Obs.] "Fortune favorless." Spenser.
Fa*vose" (?), a. [L. favus honeycomb.] 1. (Bot.) Honeycombed. See
Faveolate.
2. (Med.) Of or pertaining to the disease called favus.
Fav"o*site (?), a. (Zoˆl.) Like or pertaining to the genus Favosites.
||Fav`o*si"tes (?), n. [NL. See Favose.] (Paleon.) A genus of fossil
||c
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