Part 81

Feat"ness, n. Skill; adroitness. [Archaic] Johnson.

Fea"ture (?; 135), n. [OE. feture form, shape, feature, OF. faiture fashion, make, fr. L. factura a making, formation, fr. facere, factum, to make. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Facture.] 1. The make, form, or outward appearance of a person; the whole turn or style of the body; esp., good appearance.

What needeth it his feature to descrive?

Chaucer.

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature.

Shak.

2. The make, cast, or appearance of the human face, and especially of any single part of the face; a lineament. (pl.) The face, the countenance.

It is for homely features to keep home.

Milton.

3. The cast or structure of anything, or of any part of a thing, as of a landscape, a picture, a treaty, or an essay; any marked peculiarity or characteristic; as, one of the features of the landscape.

And to her service bind each living creature Through secret understanding of their feature.

Spenser.

4. A form; a shape. [R.]

So scented the grim feature, and upturned His nostril wide into the murky air.

Milton.

Fea"tured (?; 135), a. 1. Shaped; fashioned.

How noble, young, how rarely featured!

Shak.

2. Having features; formed into features.

The well-stained canvas or the featured stone.

Young.

Fea"ture*less (?; 135), a. Having no distinct or distinctive features.

Fea"ture*ly, a. Having features; showing marked peculiarities; handsome. [R.]

Featurely warriors of Christian chivalry.

Coleridge.

Feaze (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Feazed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Feazing.] [Cf. OE. faseln to ravel, fr. AS. fÊs fringe; akin to G. fasen to separate fibers or threads, fasen, faser, thread, filament, OHG. faso.] To untwist; to unravel, as the end of a rope. Johnson.

Feaze, v. t. [See Feese.] To beat; to chastise; also, to humble; to harass; to worry. [Obs.] insworth.

Feaze, n. A state of anxious or fretful excitement; worry; vexation. [Obs.]