Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FET, v.t. [or v. i.]

To fetch; to come to. [Not used.] Tusser. Sackville.

FE'TAL, a. [from fetus.]

Pertaining to a fetus.

FETCH, n.

A stratagem, by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass, or by which one thing seems intended and another is done; a trick; an artifice; as, a fetch of wit. Shak. Straight cast about to over-reach / Th' unwary conqueror with a fetch. Hudibras.

FETCH, v.i.

To move or turn; as, to fetch about. Shak.

FETCH, v.t. [Sax. feccan, or feccean. I have not found this word in any other language. Fet, fettan, must be a different word or corruption.]

1. To go and bring, or simply to bring, that is, to bear a thing toward or to a person. We will take men to fetch victuals for the people. Judges xx. Go to the flock, and fetch me from thence two kids of the goats. Gen. xxvii. In the latter passage, fetch signifies only to bring.
2. To derive; to draw, as from a source. On you noblest English, / Whose blood is fetched from fathers of war-proof. Shak. [In this sense the use is neither common nor elegant.]
3. To strike at a distance. [Not used.] The conditions and improvements of weapons are the fetching afar off Bacon.
4. To bring back; to recall; to bring to any state. [Not used or vulgar.] In smells we see their great and sudden effect in fetching men again, when they swoon. Bacon.
5. To bring or draw; as, to fetch a thing within a certain compass.
6. To make; to perform; as, to fetch a turn; to fetch a leap or bound. Shak. Fetch a compass behind them. 2 Sam. v.
7. To draw; to heave; as, to fetch a sigh. Addison.
8. To reach; to attain or come to; to arrive at. We fetched the syren's isle. Chapman.
9. To bring; to obtain as its price. Wheat fetches only 75 cents the bushel. A commodity is worth what it will fetch. To fetch out, to bring or draw out; to cause to appear. To fetch to, to restore; to revive, as from a swoon. To fetch up, to bring up; to cause to come up or forth. To fetch a pump, to pour water into it to make it draw water. Mar. Dict.

FETCH'ER, n.

One that brings.

FETCH'ING, ppr.

Bringing; going and bringing; deriving; drawing; making; reaching.; obtaining as price.

FETE, n. [fate; Fr.]

A festival holiday or celebration of some day.

FET'I-CHISM, or FET'I-CISM, n.

The worship of idols among the negroes of Africa, among whom fetich is an idol, any tree, stone or other thing worshiped.

FET'ID, a. [L. fœtidus, from fœteo; to have an in scent.]

Having an offensive smell; having a strong or rancid scent. Most putrefactions smell either fetid or moldy. Bacon.

FET'ID-NESS, n.

The quality of smelling offensively; a fetid quality.

FE-TIF'ER-OUS, a. [L. fœtifer; fœtus and fero, to bear.]

Producing young, as animals.

FET'LOCK, n. [foot or feet and lock.]

A tuft of hair growing behind the pastern joint of many horses. Horses of low size have scarce any such tuft. Far. Dict.

FE'TOR, n. [L. fœtor.]

Any strong offensive smell; stench. Arbuthnot.

FET'TER, n. [Sax. fetor, from foot, feet, as in L. pedica; G. fessel. Chiefly used in the plural, fetters.]

1. A chain for the feet; a chain by which an animal is confined by the foot, either made fast or fixed, as a prisoner, or impeded in motion and hindered from leaping, as a horse whose fore and hind feet are confined by a chain. The Philistines bound Samson with fetters of brass. Judges xvi.
2. Any thing that confines or restrains from motion. Passions too fierce to be in fetters bound. Dryden.

FET'TER, v.t.

1. To put on fetters; to shackle or confine the feet with a chain.
2. To bind; to enchain; to confine; to restrain motion; to impose restraints on. Fetter strong madness in a silken thread. Shak.

FET'TER-ED, pp.

Bound or confined by fetters; enchained. Marston.

FET'TER-ING, ppr.

Binding or fastening by the feet with a chain; confining; restraining motion.

FET'TER-LESS, a.

Free from fetters or restraint. Marston.

FET'TLE, v.t.

1. To repair. Chesh. Glossary.
2. To do trifling business. Bp. Hall.

FETT'STEIN, n. [Ger. fat-stone.]

A mineral of a greenish or bluish gray color or flesh red, called also elaolite. Aikin. Jameson.

FE'TUS, n. [plur. fetuses. L. fœtus.]

The young of viviparous animals in the womb, and of oviparous animals in the egg, after it is perfectly formed; before which time it is called embryo. A young animal then is called a fetus, from the time its parts are distinctly formed, till its birth. Encyc.

FEUD, n. [Sax. fæhth, or fægth, from figan, feon, to hate. Hence also fah, a foe, and from the participle, feond, a fiend; D. vyand, G. feind, an enemy; G. fehd, war, quarrel; Sw. fegd; Dan. fejde. In Irish, fuath is hatred, abhorrence. Class Bg.]

1. Primarily, a deadly quarrel; hatred and contention that was to be terminated only by death. Among our rude ancestors, these quarrels, though originating in the murder of an individual, involved the whole tribe or family of the injured and of the aggressing parties. Hence in modern usage,
2. A contention or quarrel; particularly, an inveterate quarrel between families or parties in a state; the discord and animosities which prevail among the citizens of a state or city, sometimes accompanied with civil war. In the north of Great Britain, the word is still used in its original sense; denoting a combination of kindred to revenge the death of any of their blood, on the offender and all his race, or any other great enemy. We say, it is the policy of our enemies to raise and cherish intestine feuds. The word is not strictly applicable to wars between different nations, but to intestine wars, and to quarrels and animosities between families or small tribes.

FEUD, n. [Usually supposed to be composed of the Teutonic fee, goods, reward, and ead or odh. W. eizaw, possession, property. But if feuds had been given as rewards for services, that consideration would have vested the title to the land in the donee. Yet feud is not a Teutonic or Gothic word, being found among none of the northern nations of Europe. This word originated in the south of Europe, whether in France, Spain or Italy, may perhaps be ascertained by writings of the middle ages, which I do not possess. It probably originated among the Franks, or in Lombardy or Italy, and certainly among men who studied the civil law. In Italian, a feoffee is called fede-commessario, a trust-commissary; fede-commesso, is a feoffment, a trust estate; Sp. fideicomiso, a feoffment. These words are the fidei-commissarius, fidei-commissum, of the Digest and Codex. In Spanish, fiado signifies security given for another or bail; al fiado, on trust fiador, one who trusts; feudo, a fief, fee or feud; Port. id. In Norman, fidz de chevalers signifies knight's fees. Feud, then, and fee, which is a contraction of it, is a word formed from the L. fides, It. fede, Sp. fe, Norm. fei, faith, trust, with had, state, or ead or odh, estate; and a feud is an estate in trust, or on condition, which coincides nearly in sense with the northern word, G. lehen, D. leen, Sw. län, Dan. lehn, Eng. loan. From the origin of this word, we see the peculiar propriety of calling the donee fidelis, and his obligation to his lord fidelitas, whence fealty.]

A fief; a fee; a right to lands or hereditaments held in trust, or on the terms of performing certain conditions; the right which a vassal or tenant has to the lands or other immovable thing of his lord, to use the same and take the profits thereof hereditarily, rendering to his superior such duties and services as belong to military tenure, &c., the property of the soil always remaining in the lord or superior. From the foregoing explanation of the origin of the word, result very naturally the definition of the term, and the doctrine of forfeiture, upon non-performance of the conditions of the trust or loan.

FEUD-AL, a. [Sp. feudal.]

1. Pertaining to feuds, fiefs or fees; as, feudal rights or services; feudal tenures.
2. Consisting of feuds or fiefs; embracing tenures by military services; as, the feudal system.