fist

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See also: FIST and Fist

English[edit]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “fist”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: fĭst, IPA(key): /fɪst/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪst

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English fist, from Old English fȳst (“fist”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūsti, of uncertain origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fääste (“fist”), West Frisian fûst (“fist”), Dutch vuist (“fist”), German Low German Fuust (“fist”), German Faust (“fist”). More at five.

Noun[edit]

fist (plural fists)

  1. A hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward.
    The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.
  2. (printing) The pointing hand symbol ☞.
  3. (amateur radio) The characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code.
  4. (slang) A person's characteristic handwriting.
  5. A group of men. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  6. The talons of a bird of prey.
  7. (informal) An attempt at something.
    • 2015 August 16, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian‎[1]:
      City look stronger, fitter and more motivated than last season and even at this early stage the gap feels like a sizeable advantage. Yes, it is way too early to make snap judgments about the impact on the title race. It has, however, been long enough to ascertain that Manuel Pellegrini’s team are going to make a much better fist of it this time.
    • 2005, Darryl N. Davis, Visions of Mind: Architectures for Cognition and Affect, page 144:
      With the rise of cognitive neuroscience, the time may be coming when we can make a reasonable fist of mapping down from an understanding of the functional architecture of the mind to the structural architecture of the brain.
Synonyms[edit]
The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.
Derived terms[edit]
terms derived from fist (noun)
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

fist (third-person singular simple present fists, present participle fisting, simple past and past participle fisted)

  1. To strike with the fist.
    • 18 Aug 2003, Damian Cullen. "Running the rule" The Irish Times page 52
      ...may not score a point with his open hand(s), but may score a point by fisting the ball.
  2. To close (the hand) into a fist.
    • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 29:
      He noticed Ada's trick of hiding her fingernails by fisting her hand or stretching it with the palm turned upward when helping herself to a biscuit.
  3. To grip with a fist.
  4. (slang) To fist-fuck.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English fisten, fiesten, from Old English *fistan ("to break wind gently"; supported by Old English fisting (“breaking wind”)), from Proto-Germanic *fistaz (“breaking wind, fart”), from Proto-Germanic *fīsaną (“to break or discharge wind, fart”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Cognate with Dutch veest (“a fart”), Low German fīsten (“to break wind”), German Fist (“a quiet wind”), Fisten (“breaking wind”), Swedish fisa (“to fart”), Latin spīrō (“breathe, blow”).

Verb[edit]

fist (third-person singular simple present fists, present participle fisting, simple past and past participle fisted)

  2. (intransitive) To break wind.

Noun[edit]

fist (plural fists)

  1. The act of breaking wind; fise.
  2. A puffball.

Anagrams[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old English fȳst, from Proto-West Germanic *fūsti.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /fiːst/, /fist/, /fɛːst/, /fɛst/

Noun[edit]

fist (plural fistes)

  1. fist

Descendants[edit]

  • English: fist
  • Scots: fist, fyst
  • Yola: hist, fest

References[edit]

Middle French[edit]

Verb[edit]

fist

  1. third-person singular past historic of faire

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Verb[edit]

fist

  1. past participle of fise

Old High German[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

fist m

  1. fart

Declension[edit]

Declension of fist (masculine a-stem)
case singular plural
nominative fist fista
accusative fist fista
genitive fistes fisto
dative fiste fistum
instrumental fistu —

References[edit]

  1. Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014
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