Feeble (Francis), a woman’s tailor, and one of the recruits of Sir John Falstaff. Although a thin, starveling yard-wand of a man, he expresses great willingness to be drawn. Sir John compliments him as “courageous Feeble,” and says to him, “Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse.... most forcible Feeble.”—Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. act iii. sc. 2 (1598).
Feeder (Mr.), B.A., usher in the school of Dr. Blimber of Brighton. He was “a kind of human barrel-organ, which played only one tune.” He was in the habit of shaving his head to keep it cool. Mr. Feeder married Miss Blimber, the doctor’s daughter, and succeeded to the school.—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).
Feenix, nephew of the Hon. Mrs. Skewton (mother of Edith, Mr. Dombey’s second wife), Feenix was a very old gentleman, patched up to look as much like a young fop as possible.
Cousin Feenix was a man about town forty years ago; but he is still so juvenile in figure and manner that strangers are amazed when they discover latent wrinkles in his lordship’s face, and crow’s feet in his eyes. But cousin Feenix getting up at half-past seven, is quite another thing from cousin Feenix got up.—C. Dickens, Dombey and Son, xxxi. (1846).
Feignwell (Colonel) the suitor of Anne Lovely, an heiress. Anne Lovely had to obtain the consent of her four guardians before she could marry. One was an old beau, another a virtuoso, a third a broker on ’Change, and the fourth a canting quaker. The colonel made himself agreeable to all, and carried off his prize.—Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717).
Feinai´gle (Gregory de), a German mnemonist (1765-1820). He obtained some success by his aids to memory, but in Paris he was an object of ridicule.
Her memory was a mine ... For her Feinaigle’s was a useless art Byron, Don Juan, i. 11 (1819).
Felice, wife of Sir Guy Warwick, said to have “the same high forehead as Venus.”
Felic´ian (Father), a catholic priest and schoolmaster of Grand Pré, in Acadia (now called Nova Scotia). He accompanied Evangeline in part of her wanderings to find Gabriel, her affianced husband.—Longfellow, Evangeline (1849).
Felicians (The), the happy nation. The Felicians live under a free sovereignty, where the laws are absolute. Felicia is the French “Utopia.”—Mercier de la Rivière, L’Heureuse Nation (1767).