Dictionary
An American Dictionary of the English Language
Revised and enlarged (Goodrich & Porter)
Springfield, Mass. · G. & C. Merriam · 1865
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Look up a word as the writers of the time used it.
Fac-tō'tum, n. p. 490A person employed to do all kinds of work. B. Jonson.Făct'ū-al, a. p. 490Relating to, consisting of, or containing, facts. [Rare.]Făc'tum, n. p. 490(Law.) A man's own act and deed; particularly, (a.) (Civil Law.) Any thing stated and made certain. (b.) (Testamentary Law.) The due execution of a will, including every thing necessary to its…Fāct′ūre, n. p. 490The act or manner of making. [Obs.] Bacon. 2. (Com.) An invoice. Simmonds.Făc'ŭ-læ, n. pl. p. 490(Astron.) Certain bright spots on the sun’s disk, as distinguished from darker ones, called maculæ.Făc'ul-ty, n. p. 490Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical…Fă'cund, a. p. 491Eloquent; persuasive; rhetorical. [Obs.] Chaucer.Fa-cūn'di-ōūs, a. p. 491Eloquent; full of words. [Obs.] Bailey.Fa-cūn'di-ty, n. p. 491Eloquence; readiness of speech. [Obs.]Fād'dle, v. i. p. 491To trifle; to toy; to play; to fiddle. [Low.] Halliwell.Fāde, a. p. 491Weak; slight; faint. [Rare.] “Passages somewhat fade.” Jeffrey. His masculine taste gave him a sense of something fade and ludicrous. De Quincey.Fāde, v. i. p. 491To become fade; to grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant. “We all do fade as a leaf.” Isa. lxiv. 6. “Flowers that never fade.” Milton. 2. To lose…Fāde, v. t. p. 491To cause to wither; to deprive of freshness or vigor; to wear away. No winter could his laurels fade. Dryden.Fād'ed-ly, adv. p. 491In a faded manner; decayedly; poorly. “A dull room fadedly furnished.” Dickens.Fāde'less, a. p. 491Not liable to fade; unfading.Fădġe, v. i. p. 491To come close, as the parts of things united; to fit; to suit; to agree. They shall be made, in spite of antipathy, to fadge together. Milton. Who says his numbers do not fadge aright. Swift.Făd'ge, n. p. 491A sack or pack-sheet; a small flat loaf or thick cake; a fagot. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.Fād'ing, n. p. 491Loss of color, freshness, or vigor; decay; weakness. Sherwood. 2. A variety of dance. [Obs.] “Fading is a fine jig.” Beau. & Fl.Fād'ing-ly, adv. p. 491In a fading manner.Fād'ing-ness, n. p. 491Liability to fade. Mountagu.Fād'y, a. p. 491Losing color or strength. Shenstone.Fæ'cal, a. p. 491See FECAL.Fæ'çes, n. pl. p. 491Excrement; ordure; also, settling; sediment after infusion or distillation.Fæ'c'ū-lā, n. p. 491See FECULA.Fā'er-y, a. or n. p. 491The same as FAIRY. Spenser.Fāf'fle, v. i. p. 491To stammer. [Obs.] Barret.Fāg, n. p. 491One who performs low or menial services for another; a laborious drudge; especially, a school-boy who does menial services for another boy of a higher form or class in English schools. Edgeworth.Fāg, v. i. p. 491To act as a fag; to labor to weariness; to drudge. Read, fag, and subdue this chapter. Coleridge. 2. To become weary; to tire. Creighton withheld his force till the Italian began to fag. Mackenzie.Făg, v. t. p. 491To use or treat as a fag; to beat; to compel to drudge. [Colloq.] Smart. 2. To cause to labor diligently, or like a drudge; to tire by labor; to cause to become exhausted by hard work.Făg, n. p. 491A knot or coarse part in cloth. [Obs.]Făg'-ĕnd', n. p. 491An end of poorer quality, or in a spoiled condition, as the coarser end of a web of cloth, the untwisted end of a rope, and the like. 2. The refuse or meaner part of any thing. “The fag-end of…Făg'ging, n. p. 491Laborious drudgery; especially, the acting as a drudge for another at an English school.Fāg'ot, n. p. 491A bundle of sticks, twigs, or small branches of trees, used for fuel, for raising batteries, filling ditches, or other purposes in fortification; a fascine; also, a single stick, suitable or designed…Fāg'ot, v. t. p. 491To make a fagot of; to tie or bundle together; to bind in a bundle; to collect promiscuously. Dryden.Fa-gōt'to, n. p. 491(Mus.) The bassoon;—so called from being divided into parts for convenience of carriage, making, as it were, a small fagot. Moore.Fäh'lerz, n. p. 491(Min.) Gray copper, or gray copper ore. It contains copper, antimony, arsenic, and sulphur;—called also fahlore.Fāh' lun-ite, n. p. 491(Min.) A mineral formed from iolite by hydration. It consists for the most part of hydrated silicate of alumina, and derives its name from Fahlun, in Sweden, where it is found.Fāhr'en-heit, a. p. 491Pertaining to, or measured by means of, a thermometer commonly used in America and England, having the zero of its scale marked at 32 degrees below the freezing-point of water, and the boiling-point…Faience, n. p. 491A kind of earthen-ware;— a collective name for all the various kinds of glazed earthen-ware and porcelain. Fairholt.Fāil, v. i. p. 491To be wanting; to fall short; to be deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence; to cease to be furnished in the usual or expected manner, or to be altogether cut off from supply; to be…Fāil, v. t. p. 491To be wanting to; not to supply, or be supplied to, the want, need, call, &c., of; not to be sufficient for; to disappoint; to desert. The inventive god, who never fails his part. Dryden. There shall…Fāil, n. p. 491Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault. [Obs.] “His highness’ fail of issue.” Shak. 2. Death; decease. [Obs.] Shak. Without fail, unfailingly; unreservedly; absolutely.Fāil'ance, n. p. 491Fault; failure; omission. [Obs.] Fell.Fāil'ing, n. p. 491The act of one who fails; deficiency; imperfection; lapse; fault. 2. The act of becoming insolvent or bankrupt. Syn.—Fault; foible. See FAULT.Fäil'ing-ly, adv. p. 491By failing.Fāil'lis, n. p. 491(Her.) A failure or fraction in an ordinary, as if it were broken, or a splinter taken from it.Fail'ure, n. p. 491Cessation of supply, or total defect; a failing; deficiency; as, failure of rain; failure of crops. 2. Omission; non-performance; as, the failure of a promise. 3. Decay, or defect from decay; as, the…Fāin, a. p. 491Well-pleased; glad; rejoiced; disposed; inclined; forward; apt; wont; especially, content to accept, for lack of any thing better, as the more desirable of two alternatives. Men and birds are fain of…Fāin, adv. p. 491With joy or pleasure; gladly;— with would. Fain would I woo her, yet I dare not. Shak.Fāin, v. i. p. 491To wish or desire. [Obs.] “In his faining eye.” Spenser.Fāint, n. p. 491The act of fainting, or the state of one who has fainted; a swoon. [Rare.] Seemed to me ne'er did limmer paint So just an image of the saint, Who propp'd the Virgin in her faint. W. Scott.Fāint, a. p. 491Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to swoon; as, faint with fatigue, hunger, or thirst. 2. Wanting in courage, spirit, or energy; timorous; cowardly; dejected; depressed; as, “Faint heart…Fāint, v. i. p. 491To become weak or wanting in vigor; to grow feeble; to lose strength and color, and the control of the bodily or mental functions; to swoon; sometimes with away. On hearing the honor intended her…Fāint, v. t. p. 491To cause to faint or become dispirited; to depress; to weaken. [Obs.] It faints me To think what follows. Shak.Fāint'-heärt/ed, a. p. 491Wanting in courage; depressed by fear; easily discouraged or frightened; cowardly; timorous; dejected. “Faint-hearted traitors.” Addison. Fear not, neither be faint-hearted. Isa. vii. 4.Fāint'-heärt/ed-ly, adv. p. 491In a faint-hearted manner.Fāint'-heärt'ed-ness, n. p. 491Want of courage and spirit; timorousness; cowardice.Fāint'ish, a. p. 491Slightly faint; somewhat faint. Tucker.Fāint'ish-ness, n. p. 491State of being faintish; a slight degree of faintness. Arbuthnot.Fāint'ling, a. p. 491Timorous; feeble-minded. [Obs.] “A faintling, silly creature.” Arbuthnot.