Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FE-LUC'CA, n. [It. feluca; Fr. felouque; Sp. faluca.]

A boat or vessel, with oars and lateen sails, used in the Mediterranean. It has this peculiarity, that the helm may be applied to the head or stern, as occasion requires. Mar. Dict. Encyc.

FEL'WORT, n.

A plant, a species of Gentian.

FE'MALE, a.

1. Noting the sex which produces young; not male; as, a female bee.
2. Pertaining to females; as, a female hand or heart; female tenderness. To the generous decision of female mind, we owe the discovery of America. Belknap.
3. Feminine; soft; delicate; weak. Female rhymes, double rhymes, so called from the French, in which language they end in e feminine.

FE'MALE, n. [Fr. femelle; L. femella; Arm. femell; Fr. femme, woman; San. vama, vamani, a woman. See Feminine.]

1. Among animals, one of that sex which conceives and brings forth young.
2. Among plants, that which produces fruit; that which bears the pistil and receives the pollen of the male flowers.

FE'MALE-FLOW-ER, n.

In botany, a flower which is furnished with the pistil, pointal, or female organs.

FE'MALE-PLANT, n.

A plant which produces female flowers.

FE'MALE-SCREW, n.

A screw with grooves or channels.

FEME-CO-VERT, or FEMME-CO-VERT, n. [Fr.]

A married woman, who is under covert of her baron or husband.

FEME-SOLE, or FEMME-SOLE, n.

An unmarried woman. Femme-sole merchant, a woman who uses a trade alone, or without her husband.

FEM-I-NAL'I-TY, n.

The female nature. Brown.

FEM'I-NATE, a.

Feminine. [Not in use.] Ford.

FEM'I-NINE, a. [Fr. feminin; L. femininus, from femina, woman. The first syllable may be and probably is from wemb or womb, by the use of f for w; the b not being radical. The last part of the word is probably man, quasi, femman, womb-man.]

1. Pertaining to a woman, or to women, or to females; as, the feminine sex.
2. Soft; tender; delicate. Her heavenly form / Angelic, but more soft and feminine. Milton.
3. Effeminate; destitute of manly qualities. Ralegh.
4. In grammar, denoting the gender or words which signify females, or the terminations of such words. Words are said to be of the feminine gender, when they denote females, or have the terminations proper to express females in any given language. Thus in Latin, dominus, a lord, is masculine; but domina, is mistress, a female. Milton uses feminine as a noun, for female.

FEM'IN-INE-LY, adv.

In a feminine manner.

FEM'IN-ISM, n.

The qualities of females.

FEM-IN'I-TY, n.

The quality of the female sex. [Not used.] Spenser.

FEM'I-NIZE, v.t.

To make womanish. [Not used.] More.

FEM'O-RAL, a. [L. femoralis, from femur, the thigh.]

Belonging to the thigh; as, the femoral artery.

FEN, n. [Sax. fen or fenn; D. veen; Arm. fenna, to overflow; W. fynu, to abound, to produce; hence L. fons, Eng. fountain.]

Low land overflowed, or covered wholly or partially with water, but producing sedge, coarse grasses, or other aquatic plants; boggy land; a moor or marsh. A long canal the muddy fen divides.

FEN'-BER-RY, n.

A kind of blackberry. Skinner.

FEN'-BORN, a.

Born or produced in a fen. Milton.

FENCE, n. [fens. See Fend.]

1. A wall, hedge, ditch, bank or line of posts and rails, or of boards or pickets, intended to confine beasts from straying, and to guard a field from being entered by cattle, or from other encroachments. A good farmer has good fences about his farm; an insufficient fence is evidence of bad management. Broken windows and poor fences are evidences of idleness or poverty or of both.
2. A guard; any thing to restrain entrance; that which defends from attack, approach or injury; security; defense. A fence betwixt us and the victor's wrath. Addison.
3. Fencing, or the art of fencing; defense. Shak.
4. Skill in fencing or defense. Ring-fence. A fence which encircles a whole estate.

FENCE, v.i.

1. To practice the art of fencing; to use a sword or foil, for the purpose of learning the art of attack and defense. To fence well is deemed a useful accomplishment for military gentlemen.
2. To fight and defend by giving and avoiding blows or thrusts. They fence and push, and, pushing, loudly roar, / Their dewlaps and their aides are bathed in gore. Dryden.
3. To raise a fence; to guard. It is difficult to fence against unruly cattle.

FENCE, v.t. [fens.]

1. To inclose with a hedge, wall, or any thing that prevents the escape or entrance of cattle; to cure by an inclosure. In New England, farmers, for the most part, fence their lands with posts and rails, or with, stone walls. In England, lands are usually fenced with hedges and ditches. He hath fenced my way that I can not pass. Job xix.
2. To guard; to fortify. So much of adder's wisdom I have learnt, / To fence my car against thy sorceries. Milton.

FEN'CED, pp.

Inclosed with a fence; guarded; fortified.

FENCE-FUL, a. [fens'ful.]

Affording defense. Congreve.