feel

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English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fiːl/,
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːl

Etymology 1

From Middle English felen, from Old English fēlan, from Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan.

Verb

feel (third-person singular simple present feels, present participle feeling, simple past and past participle felt)

  1. (heading) To use or experience the sense of touch.
    1. (transitive, copulative) To become aware of through the skin; to use the sense of touch on.
      You can feel a heartbeat if you put your fingers on your breast.
      I felt cold and miserable all night.
    2. (transitive) To find one's way (literally or figuratively) by touching or using cautious movements.
      I felt my way through the darkened room.
      I felt my way cautiously through the dangerous business maneuver.
    3. (intransitive) To receive information by touch or by any neurons other than those responsible for sight, smell, taste, or hearing.
    4. (intransitive) To search by sense of touch.
      He felt for the light switch in the dark.
  2. (heading) To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.
    1. (transitive) To experience an emotion or other mental state about.
      I can feel the sadness in his poems.
      • 1738, [Alexander Pope], “Stanza X”, in The Universal Prayer. , London : [Thomas Ruddiman] for R Dodsley, , →OCLC, page 6:
        Teach me to feel another's VVoe; / To hide the Fault I ſee; / That Mercy I to others ſhovv, / That Mercy ſhow to me.
      • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
        Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
      • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
        British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.
    2. (transitive) To think, believe, or have an impression concerning.
      I feel that we need to try harder.
    3. (intransitive, copulative) To experience an emotion or other mental state.
      He obviously feels strongly about it.
      She felt even more upset when she heard the details.
    4. (intransitive) To sympathise; to have the sensibilities moved or affected.
      I feel for you and your plight.
  3. (transitive) To be or become aware of.
  4. (transitive) To experience the consequences of.
    Feel my wrath!
  5. (copulative) To seem (through touch or otherwise).
    It looks like wood, but it feels more like plastic.
    This is supposed to be a party, but it feels more like a funeral!
  7. (transitive, US, slang) To understand.
    I don't want you back here, ya feel me?
    • 2002, “Work It”, in Under Construction, performed by Missy Elliott:
      Shoot, errbody have the zipper jacket / And half of these thugs have the glove to match, ya feel me?
Usage notes
  • When referring to the emotional state, most prescriptive grammarians prefer "I feel bad" to "I feel badly", but "I feel badly" is widely used this way in US English.
  • In senses 2, 3, and 5, this is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs
Conjugation
Conjugation of feel
infinitive (to) feel
present tense past tense
1st-person singular feel felt
2nd-person singular feel, feelest† felt, feltst†, feltest†
3rd-person singular feels, feeleth† felt
plural feel
subjunctive feel felt
imperative feel —
participles feeling felt

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

feel (plural feels)

  1. (archaic) The sense of touch.
    • 1838, John Burns, The Principles of Surgery, volume 1, page 330:
      It begins as a firm elastic swelling, which communicates to the feel the idea that a fluid is contained under a firm fascia […]
  2. A perception experienced mainly or solely through the sense of touch.
    Bark has a rough feel.
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
      And then something in the sound or the feel of the waters made him look down, and he perceived that the ebb had begun and the tide was flowing out to sea.
    • 2010, Nathan Bowers, 4-H Guide to Training Horses, page 111:
      The unshanked snaffle bit is good for bending and getting a horse used to the feel of a bit.
  3. A vague mental impression.
    You should get a feel for the area before moving in.
    • 2010, Paul Wilson, “Khotan (Hetian)”, in The Silk Roads: A Route & Planning Guide‎, 3rd edition (Travel), Trailblazer Publications, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 379:
      You can arrange camel trips into the desert but to really get a feel for this allow yourself a couple of extra days and be prepared for what at times can be an uncomfortable journey: Xuan Zang tells us that as he left Khotan he was ‘attacked by tornados which bring with them clouds of flying gravel’.
  4. An act of fondling.
    She gave me a quick feel to show that she loves me.
  5. A vague understanding.
    I'm getting a feel for what you mean.
  6. An intuitive ability.
    She has a feel for music.
  7. (chiefly US, slang) A feeling; an emotion.
    I know that feel.
Derived terms
Descendants
  • → Korean: 삘 (ppil)
Translations

Etymology 2

See fele.

Pronoun

feel

  1. (dialectal or obsolete) Alternative form of fele

Adjective

feel (not comparable)

  1. (dialectal or obsolete) Alternative form of fele

Adverb

feel (not comparable)

  1. (dialectal or obsolete) Alternative form of fele

References

  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*fōljan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 150

Anagrams

Chinese

Etymology

From English feel. Cognate with Mandarin fu.

Pronunciation

Noun

feel (Hong Kong Cantonese)

  1. emotional attraction or desire
    佢好似對你有feel喎。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    佢好似对你有feel㖞。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    keoi5 hou2 ci5 deoi3 nei5 jau5 fiu1 wo3.
    He seems to have some feelings for you.
  2. vibe; atmosphere

Verb

feel (Hong Kong Cantonese)

  1. to sense
    有冇人feel到有地震？ [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]
    jau5 mou5 jan4 fiu1 dou3-2 jau5 dei6 zan3?
    Could anyone feel the earthquake?
  2. to experience or understand the mental state of others
    我feel到佢做嘢好畀心機。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    我feel到佢做嘢好畀心机。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    ngo5 fiu1 dou3-2 keoi5 zou6 je5 hou2 bei2 sam1 gei1.
    I could tell that he has devoted a lot of effort into his work.

Suffix

feel (Hong Kong Cantonese)

  1. Used after a noun to form an adjective denoting resemblance towards such noun; -like; sense of …

Synonyms

References

Middle English

Pronoun

feel

  1. Alternative form of fele (“many”)

North Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian fēla.

Verb

feel

  1. (Föhr-Amrum) to feel

Old Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin fidēlem (“faithful”). Replaced by the borrowing fidel in modern Catalan.

Adjective

feel

  1. faithful

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin fidēlis.

Adjective

feel m (oblique and nominative feminine singular feel)

  1. faithful; loyal

Descendants

Seri

Two ducks standing beside one another
A mallard hen and a mallard tom

Pronunciation

Noun

feel (article quij, plural feeloj)

  1. mallard

References

  • Moser, Mary B., Marlett, Stephen A. (2010) Comcaac quih yaza quih hant ihiip hac: cmiique iitom - cocsar iitom - maricaana iitom [Seri-Spanish-English Dictionary], 2nd edition, Hermosillo: Plaza y Valdés Editores, →ISBN, page 297.
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