Part 99

Syn. -- See Female, a.

Fem"i*nine, n. 1. A woman. [Obs. or Colloq.]

They guide the feminines toward the palace.

Hakluyt.

2. (Gram.) Any one of those words which are the appellations of females, or which have the terminations usually found in such words; as, actress, songstress, abbess, executrix.

There are but few true feminines in English.

Latham.

Fem"i*nine*ly, adv. In a feminine manner. Byron.

Fem"i*nine*ness, n. The quality of being feminine; womanliness; womanishness.

Fem`i*nin"i*ty (?), n. 1. The quality or nature of the female sex; womanliness.

2. The female form. [Obs.]

O serpent under femininitee.

Chaucer.

Fe*min"i*ty (?), n. Womanliness; femininity. [Obs.] "Trained up in true feminity." Spenser.

Fem`i*ni*za"tion (?), n. The act of feminizing, or the state of being feminized.

Fem"i*nize (?), v. t. [Cf. F. fÈminiser.] To make womanish or effeminate. Dr. H. More.

Fem"i*nye (?), n. [OF. femenie, feminie, the female sex, realm of women.] The people called Amazons. [Obs.] "[The reign of] feminye." Chaucer.

||Femme (? or ?), n. [F.] A woman. See Feme, n.

Femme de chambre (?). [F.] A lady's maid; a chambermaid.

Fem"o*ral (?), a. [L. femur, femoris, thigh: cf. F. fÈmoral.] Pertaining to the femur or thigh; as, the femoral artery. "Femoral habiliments." Sir W. Scott.

||Fe"mur (f"mr), n.; pl. Femora (fm"*r). [L. thigh.] (Anat.) (a) The ||thigh bone. (b) The proximal segment of the hind limb containing the ||thigh bone; the thigh. See Coxa.

Fen (?), n. [AS. fen, fenn, marsh, mud, dirt; akin to D. veen, OFries. fenne, fene, OHG. fenna, G. fenn, Icel. fen, Goth. fani mud.] Low land overflowed, or covered wholly or partially with water, but producing sedge, coarse grasses, or other aquatic plants; boggy land; moor; marsh.

'Mid reedy fens wide spread.

Wordsworth.

Fen is used adjectively with the sense of belonging to, or of the nature of, a fen or fens.

Fen boat, a boat of light draught used in marshes. -- Fen duck (Zoˆl.), a wild duck inhabiting fens; the shoveler. [Prov. Eng.] -- Fen fowl (Zoˆl.), any water fowl that frequent fens. -- Fen goose (Zoˆl.), the graylag goose of Europe. [Prov. Eng.] -- Fen land, swamp land.

Fence (?), n. [Abbrev. from defence.] 1. That which fends off attack or danger; a defense; a protection; a cover; security; shield.

Let us be backed with God and with the seas, Which he hath given for fence impregnable.