Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FEOFF, v.t. [feff; Norm. feffre; Fr. fieffer, from fief. The first syllable is the It. fede, Sp. fe, contracted from fides, faith; the last syllable I am not able to trace.]

To invest with a fee or feud; to give or grant to one any corporeal hereditament. The compound infeoff is more generally used.

FEOFF-EE, n. [feffee'.]

A person who is infeoffed, that is, invested with a fee or corporeal hereditament.

FEOFF-ER, or FEOFF-OR, n. [feff'er.]

One who infeoffs or grants a fee.

FEOFF-MENT, n. [feff'ment; Law L. feoffamentum.]

The gift or grant of a fee or corporeal hereditament, as land, castles, honors, or other immovable thing; a grant in fee simple, to a man and his heirs forever. When in writing, it is called a deed of feoffment. The primary sense is the grant of a feud or an estate in trust. [See Feud.]

FE-RA'CIOUS, a. [L. ferax, from fero, to bear.]

Fruitful; producing abundantly. Thomson.

FE-RAC'I-TY, n. [L. feracitas.]

Fruitfulness. [Little used.]

FERAE-NATURAE, a. [Feræ naturæ. L.]

Wild; not tamed or not tamable.

FE'RAL, a. [L. feralis.]

Funereal; pertaining to funerals; mournful. Burton.

FERE, n. [Sax. fera, or gefera, with a prefix.]

A fellow; a mate; a peer. [Obs.] Chaucer.

FER'E-TO-RY, n. [L. feretrum, a bier.]

A place in a church for a bier.

FER'GUS-ON-ITE, n.

A mineral of a brownish black color, and conchoidal fracture, found near Cape Farewell, Greenland. Haidinger.

FE'RI-AL, a. [L. ferialis.]

Pertaining to holidays, or to common days. Gregory.

FE-RI-A'TION, n. [L. feriatio, from feriæ, vacant days, holidays; G. feier, whence feiern, to rest from labor, to keep holiday, D. vieren.]

The act of keeping holiday; cessation from work. Brown.

FE'RINE, a. [L. ferinus, from ferus, wild, probably from the root of Sax. faran, to go, to wander, or a verb of the same family.]

Wild; untamed; savage. Lions, tigers, wolves and bears are ferine beasts. Hale.

FE'RINE-LY, adv.

In the manner of wild beasts.

FE'RINE-NESS, n.

Wildness; savageness. Hale.

FER'I-TY, n. [L. feritas, from ferus, wild.]

Wildness; savageness; cruelty. Woodward.

FERM, n.

A farm or rent; a lodging house. [Obs.] [See. Farm.]

FER'MENT, n. [L. fermentum, from ferveo, to boil. See Fervent.]

1. A gentle boiling; or the internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid. [In this sense it is rarely used. See Fermentation.]
2. Intestine motion; heat; tumult; agitation; as, to put the passions in a ferment; the state or people are in a ferment. Subdue and cool the ferment of desire. Rogers.
3. That which causes fermentation, as yeast, barm, or fermenting beer.

FER-MENT', v.i.

To work; to effervesce; to be in motion, or to be excited into sensible internal motion, as the constituent particles of an animal or vegetable fluid. To the vinous fermentation we apply the term work. We may that new cider, beer or wine ferments or works. But work is not applied to the other kinds of fermentation.

FER-MENT', v.t. [L. fermento; Fr. fermenter; Sp. fermentar; It. fermentare.]

To set in motion; to excite internal emotion; to heat; to raise by intestine motion. While youth ferments the blood. Pope.

FER-MENT'A-BLE, a.

Capable of fermentation; thus, cider, beer of all kinds, wine, and other vegetable liquors, are fermentable.

FER'MENT-AL, a.

Having power to cause fermentation. Brown.

FER-MENT-A'TION, n. [L. fermentatio.]

The sensible internal motion of the constituent particles of animal and vegetable substances, occasioned by a certain degree of heat and moisture, and accompanied by an extrication of gas and heat. Fermentation is followed by a change of properties in the substances fermented, arising from new combinations of their principles. It may be defined, in its most general sense, any spontaneous change which takes place in animal or vegetable substances, after life has ceased. It is of three kinds, vinous, acetous and putrefactive. The term is also applied to other processes, as the panary fermentation, or the raising of bread; but it is limited by some authors, to the vinous and acetous fermentations, which terminate in the production of alcohol or vinegar. Fermentation differs from effervescence. The former is confined to animal and vegetable substances; the latter is applicable to mineral substances. The former is spontaneous; the latter produced by the mixture of bodies. Encyc. Parr. Thomson.

FER-MENT'A-TIVE, a.

1. Causing or having power to cause fermentation; as, fermentative heat.
2. Consisting in fermentation; as, fermentative process.