<B>fossage, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (in old English law) a duty levied on the inhabitants of a fortified town for the purpose of cleaning the moat or ditch surrounding it. </DL>
<A NAME="fosse">
<B>fosse, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a ditch, trench, canal, or moat. </DL>
<A NAME="fossette">
<B>fossette, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small hollow; depression; dimple. </DL>
<A NAME="fossick">
<B>fossick,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Australia.) <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>(Mining.) <DD><B> a. </B>to search for gold by digging in crevices, washing places, abandoned workings, etc. <DD><B> b. </B>to take gold from someone else's claim. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to search about; rummage. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to dig; hunt. noun <B>fossicker.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="fossil">
<B>fossil, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>the hardened remains or traces of an animal or plant of a former age. Fossils of ferns are found in coal. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) a very old-fashioned person, set in his ways. <BR> <I>Ex. That lecturer is an old fossil--a century behind the times!</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Obsolete.) any rock or mineral dug out of the earth. <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>forming a fossil; of the nature of a fossil. <BR> <I>Ex. the fossil remains of a dinosaur.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>dug out of the earth. <BR> <I>Ex. fossil fuels.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Figurative.) belonging to the outworn past; very old-fashioned; not modern. <BR> <I>Ex. fossil ideas.</I> (SYN) antiquated. adj. <B>fossillike.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="fossilfuel">
<B>fossil fuel,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> coal, oil, or natural gas. </DL>
<A NAME="fossiliferous">
<B>fossiliferous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> bearing or containing fossils. </DL>
<B>fossil ivory,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> ivory from the tusks of walruses or mammoths, preserved in good condition from prehistoric times in the ice of the north polar region. </DL>
<A NAME="fossilize">
<B>fossilize, </B>verb, <B>-ized,</B> <B>-izing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to make into a fossil. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to make antiquated, set, stiff, or rigid. <BR> <I>Ex. His conventional training as a youth fossilized him.</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to change into a fossil; turn into stone. <BR> <I>Ex. Only the relatively few plants and animals that are covered by water or are in some other way protected from bacterial action can fossilize (Fred W. Emerson).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to become antiquated, set, stiff, or rigid. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Informal.) to search for fossils. noun <B>fossilization.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="fossilradiation">
<B>fossil radiation,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the energy trapped by prehistoric plants from the sun and released when the coal formed from these plants is burned. </DL>
<A NAME="fossilwater">
<B>fossil water,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> water deposited underground in geological ages. <BR> <I>Ex. Fossil water ... apparently accumulated during heavy rains associated with the last Ice Age (Walter Sullivan). Fossil water below the desert's surface can be pumped to relieve its aridity (Scientific American).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fossorial">
<B>fossorial, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>digging or burrowing. <BR> <I>Ex. a fossorial animal.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>adapted for digging or burrowing. <BR> <I>Ex. the fossorial feet of a mole.</I> </DL>
<B>fossula, </B>noun, pl. <B>-lae.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a small fossa. <DD><B> 2. </B>a vacant space representing one of the primitive septa of certain corals. </DL>
<A NAME="fossulate">
<B>fossulate, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Zoology.) grooved; slightly excavated or hollowed out; having a small or shallow fossa. </DL>
<A NAME="fossway">
<B>fossway, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> one of the great Roman roads in England, built with a ditch on each side of the roadway. </DL>
<A NAME="foster">
<B>foster, </B>verb, adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to help the growth or development of; encourage. <BR> <I>Ex. Our city fosters libraries, parks, and playgrounds.</I> (SYN) promote, further. <DD><B> 2. </B>to care for fondly; cherish. <BR> <I>Ex. to foster hope in an invalid. He gave them charge about the Queen, To guard and foster her forevermore (Tennyson).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to bring up; help to grow; make grow; rear. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Obsolete.) to feed; nourish. <BR> <I>Ex. foster'd with cold dishes (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>in the same family, but not related by birth. <BR> <I>Ex. a foster daughter, foster siblings.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>of or for a foster child or foster children. <BR> <I>Ex. foster care.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> (Archaic.) a foster parent. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterage">
<B>fosterage, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of bringing up another's child as one's own. <DD><B> 2. </B>the state of being a foster child. <DD><B> 3. </B>the custom of putting a child under the care of foster parents. <DD><B> 4. </B>the act of encouraging or promoting. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterbrother">
<B>foster brother,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a boy brought up with another child or children of different parents. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterchild">
<B>foster child,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a child brought up by persons who are not his parents. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterdaughter">
<B>foster daughter,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a girl who is brought up as a daughter by a foster parent or parents. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterer">
<B>fosterer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=foster parent.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>a person or thing that encourages or promotes. <DD><B> 3. </B>a patron; protector. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterfather">
<B>foster father,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a man who brings up another person's child. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterhome">
<B>foster home,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a home in which one or more foster children are placed or brought up. </DL>
<B>foster mother,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a woman who brings up another person's child. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterparent">
<B>foster parent,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person who brings up another person's child; foster father or foster mother. </DL>
<A NAME="fostersister">
<B>foster sister,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a girl brought up with another child or children of different parents. </DL>
<A NAME="fosterson">
<B>foster son,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a boy who is brought up as a son by a foster parent or parents. </DL>
<A NAME="fother">
<B>fother, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to cover (a sail) with oakum, rope yarn, or the like, for placing over and stopping a leak in a ship. <DD><B> 2. </B>to stop (a leak) with a sail prepared in this way. </DL>
<B>Foucault pendulum,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a pendulum used by Foucault in 1851 to demonstrate the earth rotates on its axis. The plane of its swing slowly wheeled, a phenomenon explained only by the earth's rotation. The deviation is clockwise north of the equator, counterclockwise south of it, the rate varying with latitude. </DL>
<A NAME="foud">
<B>foud, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a bailiff or magistrate in Orkney, Shetland, and the Faeroe Islands. </DL>
<A NAME="foudroyant">
<B>foudroyant, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>sudden and overwhelming; stunning; dazzling. (SYN) flashing. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Medicine.) beginning very suddenly and severely. <BR> <I>Ex. a foudroyant disease.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fouette">
<B>fouette, </B>noun, verb, <B>-ted,</B> <B>-teing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a snap turn in ballet in which one leg is thrown out to the side and then brought back with the foot bent in toward the knee of the other leg, while the other foot acts as a pivot, often done in a continuous movement. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to perform a fouette. </DL>
<A NAME="fougasse">
<B>fougasse, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Military.) a small mine resembling a well sunk in the ground. </DL>
<A NAME="fought">
<B>fought, </B>verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> past tense and past participle of <B>fight.</B> <BR> <I>Ex. He fought bravely yesterday. A battle was fought there.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="foughten">
<B>foughten, </B>verb, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>verb </I> an archaic past participle of <B>fight.</B> <DD><I>adj. </I> (Archaic.) that has been the scene of fighting. <BR> <I>Ex. a foughten field.</I> </DL>
