%fem%

a. [ L. effeminatus, p. p. of effeminare to make a woman of; ex out + femina a woman. See Feminine, a. ] 1. Having some characteristic of a woman, as delicacy, luxuriousness, etc.; soft or delicate to an unmanly degree; womanish; weak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The king, by his voluptuous life and mean marriage, became effeminate, and less sensible of honor. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

An effeminate and unmanly foppery. Bp. Hurd. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Womanlike; womanly; tender; -- in a good sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gentle, kind, effeminate remorse. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Effeminate and womanish are generally used in a reproachful sense; feminine and womanly, applied to women, are epithets of propriety or commendation. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Effeminated p. pr. & vb. n. Effeminating ] To make womanish; to make soft and delicate; to weaken. [ 1913 Webster ]

It will not corrupt or effeminate children's minds. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To grow womanish or weak. [ 1913 Webster ]

In a slothful peace both courage will effeminate and manners corrupt. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. In an effeminate or womanish manner; weakly; softly; delicately. “Proud and effeminately gay.” Fawkes. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. By means of a woman; by the power or art of a woman. [ R. ] “Effeminately vanquished.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being effeminate; unmanly softness. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. effeminatio. ] Effeminacy; womanishness. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make effeminate. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. femel, femal, F. femelle, fr. L. femella, dim. of femina woman. See Feminine. ] 1. An individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young, or (in a wider sense) which has an ovary and produces ova. [ 1913 Webster ]

The male and female of each living thing. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A plant which produces only that kind of reproductive organs which are capable of developing into fruit after impregnation or fertilization; a pistillate plant. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Belonging to the sex which conceives and gives birth to young, or (in a wider sense) which produces ova; not male. [ 1913 Webster ]

As patient as the female dove
When that her golden couplets are disclosed. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Belonging to an individual of the female sex; characteristic of woman; feminine; as, female tenderness. “Female usurpation.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

To the generous decision of a female mind, we owe the discovery of America. Belknap. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Bot.) Having pistils and no stamens; pistillate; or, in cryptogamous plants, capable of receiving fertilization. [ 1913 Webster ]

Female rhymes (Pros.), double rhymes, or rhymes (called in French feminine rhymes because they end in e weak, or feminine) in which two syllables, an accented and an unaccented one, correspond at the end of each line. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ A rhyme, in which the final syllables only agree (strain, complain) is called a male rhyme; one in which the two final syllables of each verse agree, the last being short (motion, ocean), is called female. Brande & C. --
Female screw, the spiral-threaded cavity into which another, or male, screw turns. Nicholson. --
Female fern (Bot.), a common species of fern with large decompound fronds (Asplenium Filixfæmina), growing in many countries; lady fern. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ The names male fern and female fern were anciently given to two common ferns; but it is now understood that neither has any sexual character.

Syn. -- Female, Feminine. We apply female to the sex or individual, as opposed to male; also, to the distinctive belongings of women; as, female dress, female form, female character, etc.; feminine, to things appropriate to, or affected by, women; as, feminine studies, employments, accomplishments, etc. “Female applies to sex rather than gender, and is a physiological rather than a grammatical term. Feminine applies to gender rather than sex, and is grammatical rather than physiological.” Latham. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A gallant. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Courting her smoothly like a femalist. Marston. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make, or to describe as, female or feminine. Shaftesbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ OF. feme, F. femme. ] (Old Law) A woman. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

Feme covert (Law), a married woman. See Covert, a., 3. --
Feme sole (Law), a single or unmarried woman; a woman who has never been married, or who has been divorced, or whose husband is dead. --
Feme sole trader or
Feme sole merchant (Eng. Law), a married woman, who, by the custom of London, engages in business on her own account, inpendently of her husband. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Arch.) See Femerell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. fumeraille part of a chimney. See Fume. ] (Arch.) A lantern, or louver covering, placed on a roof, for ventilation or escape of smoke. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Feminine. [ Obs. ] West. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Feminity. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. feminatus effeminate. ] Feminine. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. femineus womanly. ] Womanliness; femininity. C. Reade. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. femininus, fr. femina woman; prob. akin to L. fetus, or to Gr. qh^sqai to suck, qh^sai to suckle, Skr. dhā to suck; cf. AS. f&aemacr_;mme woman, maid: cf. F. féminin. See Fetus. ] 1. Of or pertaining to a woman, or to women; characteristic of a woman; womanish; womanly. [ 1913 Webster ]

Her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Having the qualities of a woman; becoming or appropriate to the female sex; as, in a good sense, modest, graceful, affectionate, confiding; or, in a bad sense, weak, nerveless, timid, pleasure-loving, effeminate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Her heavenly form
Angelic, but more soft and feminine. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ninus being esteemed no man of war at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy. Sir W. Raleigh. [ 1913 Webster ]

Feminine rhyme. (Pros.) See Female rhyme, under Female, a.

Syn. -- See Female, a. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A woman. [ Obs. or Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They guide the feminines toward the palace. Hakluyt. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

There are but few true feminines in English. Latham. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a feminine manner. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being feminine; womanliness; womanishness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The quality or nature of the female sex; womanliness. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The female form. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

O serpent under femininitee. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Womanliness; femininity. [ Obs. ] “Trained up in true feminity.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of feminizing, or the state of being feminized. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. F. féminiser. ] To make womanish or effeminate. Dr. H. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. femenie, feminie, the female sex, realm of women. ] The people called Amazons. [ Obs. ] “[ The reign of ] feminye.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. ] A woman. See Feme, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

Femme de chambre [ F. ] A lady's maid; a chambermaid. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. femur, femoris, thigh: cf. F. fémoral. ] Pertaining to the femur or thigh; as, the femoral artery. “Femoral habiliments.” Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The thigh bone; same as femur.
Syn. -- femur, thighbone. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

‖n.; pl. Femora [ L. thigh. ] (Anat.) (a) The thigh bone; -- it is the longest and thickest bone of the human skeleton, which extends from the pelvis to the knee. (b) The proximal segment of the hind limb containing the thigh bone; the thigh. See Coxa. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

a. (Anat.) Pertaining to the ilium and femur; as, iliofemoral ligaments. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Companion for life. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Pref. trans- + L. femina woman. ] To change into a woman, as a man. [ Obs. & R. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

See drainable.
See dramatic.
See drinkable.
See durable.
See duteous.
See dutiful.
See earnest.
See eatable.
See ecclesiastical.
See edible.
See elaborate.
See elective.
See elusive.
See emotional.
See emphatic. See employable.
See employable.
See endurable.
See -English.
See entire.
See enviable.
See envious.
See episcopal.
See equable.
See errable.
See escapable.
See evangelical.
See eventful.
See evident.
See exact.
See examinable.
See exceptionable.
See exclusive.
See exemplary.
See exempt.
See exhaustible.
See existent.
See expectable.
See expectant.
See explainable.
See express.
See expressible.
See expugnable.
See extinct.
See factious.
See fadable.
See fain.
See familiar.
See famous.
See fashionable.
See fast.
See fatherly.
See fathomable.
See faulty.
See fearful.
See feasible.
See felicitous.
See felt.
See feminine.
See fermentable.
See festival.
See fine.
See fleshy.
See fluent.
See forcible.
See fordable.
See foreknowable.
See foreseeable.
See forgetful.
See forgivable.
See formal.
See framable.
See fraternal.
See friable.
See frightful.
See frustrable.
See full.
See gainable.
See gainful.
See gallant.
See genial.
See genteel.
See gentle.
See gentlemanlike.
See gentlemanly.
See geometrical.
See ghostly.
See glad.
See godlike.
See good.
See goodly.
See gorgeous.
See grammatical.
See grave.
See guidable.
See guilty.
See habile.
See habitable.
See hale.
See handy.
See hardy.
See harmful.
See hasty.
See hazardous.
See healable.
See healthful.
See healthy.
See heavenly.
See heedful.
See helpful.
See heritable.
[ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]