Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FALS'I-FY-ING, ppr.

Counterfeiting; forging; lying; proving to be false; violating.

FALS'I-TY, n. [L. falsitas.]

1. Contrariety or inconformity to truth; the quality of being false. Probability does not make any alteration, either in the truth or falsity of things. South.
2. Falsehood; a lie; a false assertion. Glanville. [This sense is less proper.]

FAL'TER, v.i. [Sp. faltar, to be deficient, from falta, fault, defect, failing, from falir, to fail, falla, fault, defect; Port. faltar, to want, to miss; from L. fallo, the primary sense of which is to fall short, or to err, to miss, to deviate.]

1. To hesitate, fail or break in the utterance of words; to speak with a broken or trembling utterance; to stammer. His tongue falters. He speaks with a faltering tongue. He falters at the question.
2. To fail, tremble or yield in exertion; not to be firm and steady. His legs falter. Wiseman.
3. To fail in the regular exercise of the understanding. We observe idiots to falter. Locke.

FAL'TER, v.t.

To sift. [Not in use.] Mortimer.

FAL'TER-ING, n.

Feebleness; deficiency. Killingbeck.

FAL'TER-ING, ppr.

Hesitating; speaking with a feeble, broken, trembling utterance; failing.

FAL'TER-ING-LY, adv.

With hesitation; with a trembling, broken voice; with difficulty or feebleness.

FAME, n. [L. fama; Fr. fame; Sp. and It. fama; Gr. φαμα, φημη, from φαω, to speak. I suspect this root to be contracted from φαγω or φακω, Class Bg. See No. 48, 62, and Facund.]

1. Public report or rumor. The fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come. Gen. xiv.
2. Favorable report; report of good or great actions; report that exalts the character; celebrity; renown; as, the fame of Howard or of Washington; the fame of Solomon. And the fame of Jesus went throughout all Syria. Matth. iv.

FAME, v.t.

1. To make famous. B. Jonson.
2. To report. Buck.

FAM'ED, a.

Much talked of; renowned; celebrated; distinguished and exalted by favorable reports. Aristides was famed for learning and wisdom, and Cicero for eloquence. He is famed for mildness, peace and prayer. Shak.

FAME-GIV-ING, a.

Bestowing fame.

FAME'LESS, a.

Without renown. Beaum.

FAME'LESS-LY, adv.

In a fameless manner.

FA-MIL'IAR, a. [famil'yar; L. familiaris; Fr. familier; Sp. familiar; from L. familia, family, which see.]

1. Pertaining to a family; domestic. Pope.
2. Accustomed by frequent converse; well acquainted with; intimate; close; as, a familiar friend or companion.
3. Affable; not formal or distant; easy in conversation. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Shak.
4. Well acquainted with; knowing by frequent use. Be familiar with the Scriptures.
5. Well known; learnt or well understood by frequent use. Let the Scriptures be familiar to us.
6. Unceremonious; free; unconstrained; easy. The emperor conversed with the gentleman in the most familiar manner.
7. Common; frequent and intimate. By familiar intercourse, strong attachments are soon formed.
8. Easy; unconstrained; not formal. His letters are written in a familiar style. He sports in loose familiar strains. Addison.
9. Intimate in an unlawful degree. A poor man found a priest familiar with his wife. Camden.

FA-MIL'IAR, n.

1. An intimate; a close companion; one long acquainted; one accustomed to another by free, unreserved converse. All my familiars watched for my halting. Jer. xx.
2. A demon or evil spirit supposed to attend at a call. But in general we say, a familiar spirit. Shak.
3. In the court of Inquisition, a person who assists in apprehending and imprisoning the accused. Encyc.

FA-MIL-IAR'I-TY, n.

1. Intimate and frequent converse, or association in company. The gentlemen lived in remarkable familiarity. Hence,
2. Easiness of conversation; affability; freedom from ceremony.
3. Intimacy; intimate acquaintance; unconstrained intercourse.

FA-MIL'IAR-IZE, v.t.

1. To make familiar or intimate; to habituate; to accustom; to make well known, by practice or converse; as, to familiarize one's self to scenes of distress.
2. To make easy by practice or customary use, or by intercourse.
3. To bring down from a state of distant superiority. The genius smiled on me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination. Addison.

FA-MIL'IAR-IZ-ED, pp.

Accustomed; habituated; made easy by practice, custom, or use.

FA-MIL'IAR-IZ-ING, ppr.

Accustoming; rendering easy by practice, custom, or use.

FA-MIL'IAR-LY, adv.

1. In a familiar manner; unceremoniously; without constraint; without formality.
2. Commonly; frequently; with the ease and unconcern that arises from long custom or acquaintance.

FAMILIAR-SPIRIT, n. [Familiar Spirit.]

A wizard; a person supposed to have a league with the devil.

FAM'I-LISM, n.

The tenets of the Familists.

FAM'I-LIST, n. [from Family.]

One of the religious sect called the Family of Love.

FAM-I-LIST'IC, a.

Pertaining to familists. Baxter.

FA'MILLE, n. [fameel; Fr.]

Family.