ferula, a flat wooden bat, used by schoolmasters for inflicting pats on the palm of a boy’s hand. North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 41 (in Shak. Plut., p. 96, n. 1); Englished as ferule, Hall, Satires, iv. 1. 169. L. ferula.
fescue, a little stick or pin, for pointing out the letters to children learning to read. Hall, Satires, iv. 2. 100; Dryden, Prologue to Cleomenes, 38. Hence, the gnomon of a dial; Puritan Widow, iv. 2. 84. OF. festu (F. fétu), a straw, O. Prov. festuc, for L. festūca, a straw (cp. O. Prov. festuga).
festinately, hastily. L. L. L. iii. 1. 6. Deriv. of L. festinus, hasty.
fet, pt. t. and pp. fetched; ‘David sent, and fet her to his house’, Bible, 2 Sam. xi. 27, Acts xxviii. 13 (ed. 1611); ‘This conclusion is far fet’, Jewel (Wks., ed. Parker Soc. i. 146); ‘Deep-fet groans’, 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 33; B. Jonson, Silent Woman, Prol. ‘To fet’ is in gen. prov. use for ‘fetch’ in Lancashire and Midland counties (EDD.) ME. fette, pt. s. of fecchen, and fet pp. (Chaucer). OE. fette, pt. s., and fetod, pp. of fetian, to fetch (B. T.).
fetch, a trick, stratagem. Tusser, Husbandry, § 64. 2; Hamlet, ii. 1. 38; King Lear, ii. 4. 90. In gen. prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Fetch, sb.2 14).
fetch in, to seize upon, apprehend. Ant. and Cl. iv. 1. 14, Massinger, Roman Actor, iv. 1 (Parthenius).
fetuous, well-formed, well-made. Herrick, The Temple, 68; featous (NED.). See [featuously].
feutred, featured, fashioned. J. Heywood, The Four Plays, Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 19, col. 1; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 376. The strange spelling feautered also occurs (NED.).
†fewmand. Only in B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Earnie): ‘They fewmets, the excrement of a deer. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 2 (John); Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 306; ‘Fumées, the dung or excrements of Deer, called by woodmen, fewmets, or fewmishing’, Cotgrave. Cp. F. fumier, dung, manure, cogn. w. L. fimus, dung, excrement. See NED. (s.v. Fumet).