<B>feudal system,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the system of feudalism. <BR> <I>Ex. The exchange of land for services prevailed from top to bottom of the feudal system, including the manorial organization which was its economic base (Wallace K. Ferguson).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="feudatory">
<B>feudatory, </B>adjective, noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>owing feudal services to a lord. <DD><B> 2. </B>holding or held as a feudal estate or fief. <DD><B> 3. </B>(of a kingdom or state) under the overlordship of the sovereign of another state. <DD><B> 4. </B>of vassals or retainers. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a feudal vassal. <BR> <I>Ex. The duke summoned his feudatories to aid him in war.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a feudal estate; fief. <DD><B> 3. </B>a feudatory kingdom, state, country, or other territory. </DL>
<A NAME="feudejoie">
<B>feu de joie, </B>pl. <B>feux de joie.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) <DD><B> 1. </B>fire of joy; a bonfire kindled in rejoicing or celebration. <DD><B> 2. </B>a salute of rifle fire fired in rapid succession along a rank of men so as to make one long, continuous sound. </DL>
<A NAME="feudist">
<B>feudist</B> (1), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a person engaging in a feud. </DL>
<A NAME="feudist">
<B>feudist</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an authority on feudal law. </DL>
<A NAME="feuduty">
<B>feu duty,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> annual rent paid for tenure of a feu. </DL>
<A NAME="feuillete">
<B>feuillete, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) a pie, the crust of which separates in rising into a number of very thin, flat layers like the leaves of a book. </DL>
<A NAME="feuilleton">
<B>feuilleton, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a part of one or more pages of a newspaper containing miscellaneous articles, serial stories, verse, and the like. Originally, feuilletons of French and other European newspapers appeared at the bottom of the page, marked off from the rest of the page by a rule. <DD><B> 2. </B>an article or other work, especially a part of a serial story, printed in the feuilleton. <DD><B> 3. </B>a light, informal essay or similar journalistic writing. <BR> <I>Ex. His bent, in the undergraduate years, was poetic, and he had issued feuilletons on Villon and Edwin Arlington Robinson (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="feuilletonism">
<B>feuilletonism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an aptitude for writing feuilletons. </DL>
<A NAME="feuilletonist">
<B>feuilletonist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a writer for a newspaper feuilleton. </DL>
<A NAME="feuilletonistic">
<B>feuilletonistic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> characteristic of a feuilleton. </DL>
<A NAME="feulgenreaction">
<B>Feulgen reaction,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a method of staining for microscopic examination, which colors a nucleic acid purple and leaves the remainder of a cell colorless, used in the study of the nuclei of cells, especially to determine the presence and location of deoxyribonucleic acid. </DL>
<A NAME="fever">
<B>fever, </B>noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1a. </B>an unhealthy condition of the body in which the temperature is higher than normal (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees centigrade), often accompanied by rapid pulse and weakness. <DD><B> b. </B>a body temperature that is greater than normal; pyrexia. <BR> <I>Ex. Let fever sweat them till they tremble (W. H. Auden).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of various sicknesses that heat the body and make the heart beat fast. <BR> <I>Ex. scarlet fever, typhoid fever, or yellow fever.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) an excited, restless condition; agitation. <BR> <I>Ex. When gold was discovered, the miners were in a fever of excitement. Passion is a sort of fever in the mind (William Penn).</I> (SYN) ferment. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Figurative.) a current fad or enthusiasm for something or for some person. (SYN) furor. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to affect with fever; heat. <BR> <I>Ex. The scorching blast ... fevers the blood (Alexander W. Kinglake).</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> to become feverish. adj. <B>feverless.</B> </DL>
<B>fevered, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>having fever. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) excited; restless. <BR> <I>Ex. In spite of the fevered consultations of the past two days, the affair is not finished with (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="feverfew">
<B>feverfew, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a bushy, perennial European herb of the composite family with small, white and yellow, daisylike flowers, formerly used as a febrifuge. It is a species of chrysanthemum. </DL>
<A NAME="feverfly">
<B>fever fly,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an English fly whose larva eats the roots of the hop plant. The coincidence of its swarming in enormous numbers in certain years when fever among humans was prevalent led to a false conclusion. </DL>
<A NAME="fevergum">
<B>fevergum, </B>noun. =blue gum.</DL>
<A NAME="feverheat">
<B>fever heat,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the high temperature of the body in fever. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) great intensity of emotional excitement. </DL>
<A NAME="feverish">
<B>feverish, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>having an abnormally high temperature; having fever. <DD><B> b. </B>having some fever but not much. <DD><B> 2. </B>caused by fever. <BR> <I>Ex. a feverish thirst.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>causing fever. <BR> <I>Ex. a feverish climate.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>infested with fever. <BR> <I>Ex. a feverish swamp.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Figurative.) excited; restless. <BR> <I>Ex. a feverish glance. He packed his bags in feverish haste.</I> adv. <B>feverishly.</B> noun <B>feverishness.</B> </DL>
<B>fever pitch,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a high degree of excitement or activity. <BR> <I>Ex. an economy at fever pitch (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="feverroot">
<B>feverroot, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any plant of a group of coarse North American herbs of the honeysuckle family whose roots are sometimes used for medicine, said to have been used by the Indians as a remedy for fevers; feverwort; horse gentian. </DL>
<A NAME="feversore">
<B>fever sore,</B> =cold sore.</DL>
<A NAME="fevertrap">
<B>fevertrap, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a place where a person is liable to catch fever. </DL>
<A NAME="fevertree">
<B>fever tree,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of several trees yielding, or reputed to yield, febrifuges, especially: <DD><B> a. </B>the blue gum tree, thought to prevent malaria. <DD><B> b. </B>a tree of the madder family growing in the southeastern United States, whose bark is used as a tonic and a febrifuge. </DL>
<A NAME="fevertwig">
<B>fevertwig, </B>noun. =false bittersweet.</DL>
<A NAME="feverweed">
<B>feverweed, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of several plants that are used medicinally, especially a West Indian species of eryngo. </DL>
<B>few, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> not many; amounting to a small number. <BR> <I>Ex. There are few men in our neighborhood over six feet tall. If few their wants, their pleasures are but few (Oliver Goldsmith).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a small number. <BR> <I>Ex. Winter in New England has not many warm days, only a few. Few will rise, for few are the places to fill at the top (Vannevar Bush).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>quite a few,</B> </I>(Informal.) a good many. <BR> <I>Ex. Quite a few of us went to the game.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>the few,</B> </I>the minority. <BR> <I>Ex. The favour of the few may silence the clamour of the many (Joseph Priestley).</I> noun <B>fewness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="fey">
<B>fey, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>fairylike; elfin. <DD><B> 2. </B>pert; gamin. <DD><B> 3. </B>visionary. <BR> <I>Ex. The villagers thought the girl was fey and might even have the second sight.</I> <DD><B> 4a. </B>behaving as if doomed or enchanted. <DD><B> b. </B>mentally unbalanced; crazy. <DD><B> 5a. </B>fated to die. <DD><B> b. </B>dying. Also, <B>fay.</B> noun <B>feyness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="feynmandiagram">
<B>Feynman diagram,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a graphic representation of the interactions of elementary particles. <BR> <I>Ex. Electromagnetic and weak processes exhibit striking similarities when depicted in the form of Feynman diagrams. Such diagrams symbolize the interactions that underlie subnuclear phenomena, for example the collision between two particles, which physicists refer to as a scattering event (Scientific American).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fez">
<B>fez, </B>noun, pl. <B>fezzes.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a brimless felt cap with a flat top, usually red and ornamented with a long, black tassel, worn by men in Egypt and some other countries in the Middle East. It was formerly the national headdress of the Turks. </DL>
<A NAME="ff">
<B>ff</B> (no period),<DL COMPACT><DD> fortissimo (a direction in music). </DL>
<A NAME="ff">
<B>ff.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>folios. <DD><B> 2. </B>and the following pages, sections, or other parts; and what follows. <DD><B> 3. </B>fortissimo (a direction in music). </DL>
<A NAME="ffa">
<B>FFA</B> (no periods),<DL COMPACT><DD> Future Farmers of America (a national organization of students of vocational agriculture). </DL>
<A NAME="ffa">
<B>F.F.A.</B> or <B>f.f.a.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> free from alongside (ship). </DL>
<A NAME="ffv">
<B>F.F.V.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) First Families of Virginia. </DL>
<A NAME="fha">
<B>FHA</B> (no periods),<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>Federal Housing Administration (an agency of the federal government that insures loans made by private individuals or companies for approved home construction or improvement). <DD><B> 2. </B>Future Homemakers of America (a national organization of high-school girls studying or interested in homemaking). </DL>
<A NAME="fheadengine">
<B>F-head engine,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a type of internal-combustion engine with the inlet valve in the cylinder head and the outlet valve on the side of the cylinder. </DL>
<A NAME="fhole">
<B>f-hole, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> one of the two openings in the top of the body of the violin and similar instruments, resembling the italic letter <I>f.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fi">
<B>fi, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) <DD><B> 1. </B>hi-fi. <DD><B> 2. </B>fidelity of sound reproduction. <BR> <I>Ex. wretchedly low in fi.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fiacre">
<B>fiacre, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> four-wheeled carriage for hire; horse-drawn cab. </DL>
