fell
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English fellen, from Old English fellan, fiellan (“to cause to fall, strike down, fell, cut down, throw down, defeat, destroy, kill, tumble, cause to stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *fallijaną (“to fell, to cause to fall”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pōl- (“to fall”). Cognate with Dutch vellen (“to fell, cut down”), German fällen (“to fell”), Norwegian felle (“to fell”).
Verb
fell (third-person singular simple present fells, present participle felling, simple past and past participle felled)
- (transitive) To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.
- (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Stand, or I'll fell thee down.
- 2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales[1]:
- Sinclair opened Swansea's account from the spot on 8 minutes after a Ryan Shawcross tackle had felled Wayne Routledge.
- 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 219:
- As southeast Asia's forests were felled, the rhino's habitat shrank and became fragmented.
- (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (transitive) To strike down, kill, destroy.
- 2016 January 17, "What Weiner Reveals About Huma Abedin," Vanity Fair (retrieved 21 January 2016):
- This Sunday marks the debut of Weiner, a documentary that follows former congressman Anthony Weiner in his attempt to overcome a sexting scandal and run for mayor of New York City—only to be felled, somewhat inexplicably, by another sexting scandal.
- 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Chessmen of Mars[2], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2010:
- Gahan, horrified, saw the latter's head topple from its body, saw the body stagger and fall to the ground. ... The creature that had felled its companion was dashing madly in the direction of the hill upon which he was hidden, it dodged one of the workers that sought to seize it. … Then it was that Gahan's eyes chanced to return to the figure of the creature the fugitive had felled.
- 2010 September 27, Christina Passariello, “Prodos Capital, Samsung Make Final Cut for Ferré”, in Wall Street Journal[3], retrieved 2012-08-26:
- … could make Ferré the first major fashion label felled by the economic crisis to come out the other end of restructuring.
- 2016 January 17, "What Weiner Reveals About Huma Abedin," Vanity Fair (retrieved 21 January 2016):
- (sewing) To stitch down a protruding flap of fabric, as a seam allowance, or pleat.
- 2006, Colette Wolff, The Art of Manipulating Fabric, page 296:
- To fell seam allowances, catch the lining underneath before emerging 1/4" (6mm) ahead, and 1/8" (3mm) to 1/4" (6mm) into the seam allowance.
- 2006, Colette Wolff, The Art of Manipulating Fabric, page 296:
Translations
|
Noun
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Kilt_stitching_001.jpg/125px-Kilt_stitching_001.jpg)
fell (plural fells)
- A cutting-down of timber.
- The stitching down of a fold of cloth; specifically, the portion of a kilt, from the waist to the seat, where the pleats are stitched down.
- (textiles) The end of a web, formed by the last thread of the weft.
Translations
|
Etymology 2
From Middle English fell, fel, vel, from Old English fel, fell (“hide, skin, pelt”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (compare West Frisian fel, Dutch vel, German Fell), from Proto-Indo-European *pélno (“skin, animal hide”) (compare Latin pellis (“skin”), Lithuanian plėnė (“skin”), Russian плена́ (plená, “pelt”), Albanian plah (“to cover”), Ancient Greek πέλλᾱς (péllās, “skin”)).
Noun
fell (plural fells)
- An animal skin, hide, pelt.
- c. 1599 Shakespeare: As You Like It: Act 3 Sc.3 L. 35
- Why, We are still handling our ewes, and their fells, you know, are greasy.
- c. 1599 Shakespeare: As You Like It: Act 3 Sc.3 L. 35
- Human skin (now only as a metaphorical use of previous sense).
- c. 1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:
- For he is fader of feith · fourmed ȝow alle / Bothe with fel and with face.
- c. 1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:
Translations
Etymology 3
From Old Norse fell, fjall (“rock, mountain”), compare Norwegian Bokmål fjell 'mountain', from Proto-Germanic *felzą, *fel(e)zaz, *falisaz (compare German Felsen 'boulder, cliff', Middle Low German vels 'hill, mountain'), from Proto-Indo-European *pelso; compare Irish aill (“boulder, cliff”), Ancient Greek πέλλα (pélla, “stone”), Pashto پرښه (parṣ̌a, “rock, rocky ledge”), Sanskrit पाषाण (pāşāņá, “stone”).
Noun
fell (plural fells)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/2014-07-26_Padjelantaleden%2C_Sweden_5166.jpg/220px-2014-07-26_Padjelantaleden%2C_Sweden_5166.jpg)
- (archaic outside UK) A rocky ridge or chain of mountains.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of T. Gray to this entry?)
- 1937 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
- The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, / While hammers fell like ringing bells, / In places deep, where dark things sleep, / In hollow halls beneath the fells.
- 1886, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Squire of Sandal-Side : A Pastoral Romance[4]:
- Every now and then the sea calls some farmer or shepherd, and the restless drop in his veins gives him no peace till he has found his way over the hills and fells to the port of Whitehaven, and gone back to the cradling bosom that rocked his ancestors.
- 1971 Catherine Cookson, The Dwelling Place
- She didn't know at first why she stepped off the road and climbed the bank on to the fells; it wasn't until she found herself skirting a disused quarry that she realised where she was making for, and when she reached the place she stood and gazed at it. It was a hollow within an outcrop of rock, not large enough to call a cave but deep enough to shelter eight people from the rain, and with room to spare.
- (archaic outside UK) A wild field or upland moor.
Translations
|
Etymology 4
From Middle English fel, fell (“strong, fierce, terrible, cruel, angry”), from Old English *fel, *felo, *fæle (“cruel, savage, fierce”) (only in compounds, wælfel (“bloodthirsty”), ealfelo (“evil, baleful”), ælfæle (“very dire”), etc.), from Proto-Germanic *faluz (“wicked, cruel, terrifying”), from Proto-Indo-European *pol- (“to pour, flow, swim, fly”). Cognate with Old Frisian fal (“cruel”), Middle Dutch fel (“wrathful, cruel, bad, base”), German Low German fell (“rash, swift”), Danish fæl (“disgusting, hideous, ghastly, grim”), Middle High German vālant (“imp”). See felon.
Adjective
fell (comparative feller, superlative fellest)
- Of a strong and cruel nature; eagre and unsparing; grim; fierce; ruthless; savage.
- c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act II scene vi[5]:
- […] While we devise fell tortures for thy faults.
- 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2
- And many a serpent of fell kind, / With wings before, and stings behind
- 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
- The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
- No words had been exchanged between Upjohn and self on the journey out, but the glimpses I had caught of his face from the corner of the eyes had told me that he was grim and resolute, his supply of the milk of human kindness plainly short by several gallons. No hope, it seemed to me, of turning him from his fell purpose.
- (UK dialectal, Scotland) Strong and fiery; biting; keen; sharp; pungent
- (UK dialectal, Scotland) Very large; huge.
- (obsolete) Eager; earnest; intent.
- (Can we date this quote by Samuel Pepys and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- I am so fell to my business.
- (Can we date this quote by Samuel Pepys and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Adverb
fell (comparative more fell, superlative most fell)
Derived terms
Etymology 5
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin fel (“gall, poison, bitterness”)? (Stem is fell-.)
Noun
fell (uncountable)
- Anger; gall; melancholy.
- (Can we date this quote by Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Untroubled of vile fear or bitter fell.
- 1885–1887, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “[Poem 45]”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 66:
- I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day. / What hours, O what black hoürs we have spent / This night!
- (Can we date this quote by Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Etymology 6
Noun
fell
Etymology 7
Verb
fell
External links
Albanian
Etymology
From Proto-Albanian *spesla, metathesized form of *spelsa, from Proto-Indo-European *pels (“rock, boulder”), variant of *spel- (“to cleave, break”). Compare Latin hydronym Pelso, Latin Palatium, Pashto پرښه (parša, “rock, rocky ledge”), Ancient Greek πέλλα (pélla, “stone”), German Felsen (“boulder, cliff”). Mostly dialectal, used in Gheg Albanian.
Adverb
fell
Derived terms
Related terms
Icelandic
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
fell n (genitive singular fells, nominative plural fell)
Declension
Norwegian Bokmål
Verb
fell
- imperative of felle
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology 1
Verb
fell
Etymology 2
Verb
fell
- imperative of fella
Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *fellą, whence also Old High German vel.
Pronunciation
Noun
fell n
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛl
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- Requests for date/Shakespeare
- English terms with quotations
- en:Sewing
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Textiles
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms with archaic senses
- British English
- Requests for quotations/T. Gray
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English dialectal terms
- Scottish English
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for date/Samuel Pepys
- English adverbs
- English terms derived from Latin
- English uncountable nouns
- Requests for date/Spenser
- English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals
- en:Mining
- English non-lemma forms
- English verb forms
- English causative verbs
- English irregular simple past forms
- en:Geography
- en:Kilts
- Albanian terms derived from Proto-Albanian
- Albanian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Albanian lemmas
- Albanian adverbs
- Icelandic terms derived from Old Norse
- Icelandic 1-syllable words
- Icelandic terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Icelandic/ɛtl
- Icelandic lemmas
- Icelandic nouns
- Icelandic neuter nouns
- Icelandic countable nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Bokmål verb forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk verb forms
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English neuter nouns