fellness


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fell 1

 (fĕl)
tr.v. felled, fell·ing, fells
1.
a. To cause to fall by striking; cut or knock down: fell a tree; fell an opponent in boxing.
b. To kill: was felled by an assassin's bullet.
2. To sew or finish (a seam) with the raw edges flattened, turned under, and stitched down.
n.
1. The timber cut down in one season.
2. A felled seam.

[Middle English fellen, from Old English fellan, fyllan.]

fell′a·ble adj.

fell 2

 (fĕl)
adj.
1. Of an inhumanly cruel nature; fierce: fell hordes.
2. Capable of destroying; lethal: a fell blow.
3. Dire; sinister: by some fell chance.
4. Scots Sharp and biting.
Idiom:
at/in one fell swoop
All at once.

[Middle English fel, from Old French, variant of felon; see felon1.]

fell′ness n.

fell 3

 (fĕl)
n.
1. The hide of an animal; a pelt.
2. A thin membrane directly beneath the hide.

[Middle English fel, from Old English fell; see pel- in Indo-European roots.]

fell 4

 (fĕl)
n.
1. Chiefly British An upland stretch of open country; a moor.
2. A barren or stony hill.

[Middle English fel, from Old Norse fell, fjall, mountain, hill.]

fell 5

 (fĕl)
v.
Past tense of fall.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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And it rendered his aspect not the less, but more frightful, that it seemed not to express wrath or hatred, but a certain hot fellness of purpose, which annihilated everything but itself.