English Explanatory Dictionary

fell

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.
  2. To strike down, kill, destroy.
  3. To stitch down a protruding flap of fabric, as a seam allowance, or pleat.
noun
  1. A cutting-down of timber.
  2. The stitching down of a fold of cloth; specifically, the portion of a kilt, from the waist to the seat, where the pleats are stitched down.
  3. The end of a web, formed by the last thread of the weft.
noun
  1. Skin, hide, pelt.
noun
  1. High and barren landscape feature such as a mountain range or mountain terrain above the tree line.
  2. A rocky ridge or chain of mountains, particularly in the British Isles or Fennoscandia.
  3. A wild field or upland moor.
adj
  1. Of a strong and cruel nature; eager and unsparing; grim; fierce; ruthless; savage.
  2. Strong and fiery; biting; keen; sharp; pungent
  3. Very large; huge.
  4. Eager; earnest; intent.
adv
  1. Sharply; fiercely.
noun
  1. Anger; gall; melancholy.
noun
  1. The finer portions of ore, which go through the meshes when the ore is sorted by sifting.
verb
  1. simple past of fall
  2. past participle of fall
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A township in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States.
  3. A municipality in Trier-Saarland district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
noun
  1. Ellipsis of Fell pony.
  2. Ellipsis of Fell mountain railway system, named after John Barraclough Fell.

Pronunciation

/fɛl/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-fell.wav en-us-fell.ogg

Word forms

fell fells felling felled feller fellest more fell most fell

Etymology

From Middle English fellen, from Old English fellan, fiellan (“to cause to fall, strike down, fell, cut down, throw down, defeat, destroy, kill, tumble, cause to stumble”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallijan, from Proto-Germanic *fallijaną (“to fell, to cause to fall”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂peh₃lH-. Cognate with Dutch vellen (“to fell, cut down”), German fällen (“to fell”), Danish fælde (“to fell”), Norwegian felle (“to fell”).

Synonyms

diabolical sadistic spiteful barbarous bowelless brutal compassionless cruel demonic despiteful diabolic fell incessive inclement inhuman inhumane malicious merciless nasty nonhumane pitiless remorseless rotten ruthless savage truculent unbenevolent unbenign unkind unmerciful unpitiful unpitying animalistic barbarian barbaric barbarious brutish Gothic Gothlike grim heathen heathenish heathenly heathenous incivil pagan tenebrose uncivil uncivilized uncouth uncultivated uncultured uplandish wolfish

Derived words

fellage little strokes fell great oaks overfell unfelled fell stitch flat-fell seam bookfell fellmaker fellmonger fellsman felly woolfell Campsie Fells fellfield fell runner fell running fellrunning fellside fellwalker fellwalking Goat Fell Low Fell fellness
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