fist

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See also: FIST and Fist

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “fist”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • enPR: fĭst, IPA(key): /fɪst/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪst

Etymology 1

From Middle English fist, from Old English fȳst (“fist”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūsti, of uncertain origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fääste (“fist”), West Frisian fûst (“fist”), Dutch vuist (“fist”), German Low German Fuust (“fist”), German Faust (“fist”). More at five.

Noun

fist (plural fists)

  1. A hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward.
    The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.
  2. (printing) The pointing hand symbol ☞.
  3. (amateur radio) The characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code.
  4. (slang) A person's characteristic handwriting.
  5. A group of men. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  6. The talons of a bird of prey.
  7. (informal) An attempt at something.
    • 2015 August 16, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian‎:
      City look stronger, fitter and more motivated than last season and even at this early stage the gap feels like a sizeable advantage. Yes, it is way too early to make snap judgments about the impact on the title race. It has, however, been long enough to ascertain that Manuel Pellegrini’s team are going to make a much better fist of it this time.
    • 2005, Darryl N. Davis, Visions of Mind: Architectures for Cognition and Affect, page 144:
      With the rise of cognitive neuroscience, the time may be coming when we can make a reasonable fist of mapping down from an understanding of the functional architecture of the mind to the structural architecture of the brain.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
terms derived from fist (noun)
Translations

Verb

fist (third-person singular simple present fists, present participle fisting, simple past and past participle fisted)

  1. To strike with the fist.
    • 18 Aug 2003, Damian Cullen. "Running the rule" The Irish Times page 52
      ...may not score a point with his open hand(s), but may score a point by fisting the ball.
  2. To close (the hand) into a fist.
    • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 29:
      He noticed Ada's trick of hiding her fingernails by fisting her hand or stretching it with the palm turned upward when helping herself to a biscuit.
  3. To grip with a fist.
  4. (slang) To fist-fuck.
Derived terms
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English fisten, fiesten, from Old English *fistan ("to break wind gently"; supported by Old English fisting (“breaking wind”)), from Proto-Germanic *fistaz (“breaking wind, fart”), from Proto-Germanic *fīsaną (“to break or discharge wind, fart”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Cognate with Dutch veest (“a fart”), Low German fīsten (“to break wind”), German Fist (“a quiet wind”), Fisten (“breaking wind”), Swedish fisa (“to fart”), Latin spīrō (“breathe, blow”).

Verb

fist (third-person singular simple present fists, present participle fisting, simple past and past participle fisted)

  2. (intransitive) To break wind.

Noun

fist (plural fists)

  1. The act of breaking wind; fise.
  2. A puffball.

Anagrams

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English fȳst, from Proto-West Germanic *fūsti.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fiːst/, /fist/, /fɛːst/, /fɛst/

Noun

fist (plural fistes)

  1. fist

Descendants

  • English: fist
  • Scots: fist, fyst
  • Yola: hist, fest

References

Middle French

Verb

fist

  1. third-person singular past historic of faire

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

Verb

fist

  1. past participle of fise

Old High German

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

fist m

  1. fart

Declension

Declension of fist (masculine a-stem)
case singular plural
nominative fist fista
accusative fist fista
genitive fistes fisto
dative fiste fistum
instrumental fistu —

References

  1. Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014
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