feeze

== English == === Alternative forms === fease, feaze, feese pheese, pheeze, phese vease, veeze (West Country) === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /fiːz/ Rhymes: -iːz Homophone: fees === Etymology 1 === From Middle English fese, from the verb (see below). ==== Noun ==== feeze (plural feezes) (now dialect and US) A state of worry or alarm. (now dialect and US, also fetch one's feeze) A rush, impetus, or a violent impact; also, a rub. [from ca. 1405] (obsolete, Scotland) A device for wedging items into a tight space. === Etymology 2 === From Middle English fesen, from Old English fēsian, fȳsian (“to drive away, put to flight”), variants of fēsan, fȳsan (“to hasten, rush; to incite, stimulate, send forth, drive away”), of disputed origin. Doublet of faze. ==== Verb ==== feeze (third-person singular simple present feezes, present participle feezing, simple past and past participle feezed) (now dialectal) (transitive, obsolete, often with about, also feeze away) To drive off or away; to make (someone) run, put to flight; to frighten away; compare faze. (transitive) To beat; to chastise. [from 1609] 1916 February, Jim Blythe, "The Corn-Cob Club", Public Service Magazine 20, H. J. Gonden, Chicago, page 48: He had not been squelched. he had not been feased by the feigned rebuke of the Hon. John Masterson McInnery. (transitive, intransitive) To cause to swing about. (intransitive) To swing about in the wind; to flare (as a candle) (intransitive) To frighten, put into a state of alarm. ===== Usage notes ===== Over time, this verb largely fell out of use in Standard English and survived only in dialect, from which it re-entered the standard lexicon in the 19th century as faze (in a much more limited sense). ===== Related terms ===== faze === Etymology 3 === From Scots feeze, from Old Scots fize (“screw”, noun), from Dutch vijs (“screw”), from Middle Dutch vise (“screw, windlass, winch”), from Old French vis, viz (“vise, vice”), from Latin vītis (“vine”). Doublet of vice, vise, and withe. ==== Verb ==== feeze (third-person singular simple present feezes, present participle feezing, simple past and past participle feezed) (Scotland) (transitive, also with off, on, up) To twist or turn with a screw-like motion; to screw. [from 1806] (figurative, by extension) To insinuate. [from 1813] (transitive, intransitive) To untwist; to unravel, as the end of a thread or rope. Synonyms: tease out, unsnarl; see also Thesaurus:untangle (obsolete, transitive, figurative, with at or up) To rub hard; to do a piece of work with passion. === Etymology 4 === ==== Alternative forms ==== feese ==== Verb ==== feeze (third-person singular simple present feezes, present participle feezing, simple past foze, past participle fozen) Pronunciation spelling of freeze. === References === “feeze n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present “feeze, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. “feeze, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FEASE, v.1 and sb.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 316. Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FEEZE, v.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 324. “feeze, v.”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. === Further reading === James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Feeze”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume IV (F–G), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 137. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “feeze, v.”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.