fease

fease

English

Etymology 1

Back-formation from feasance.

Verb

fease (third-person singular simple present feases, present participle feasing, simple past and past participle feased)

1. (obsolete) to execute (an action, condition, obligation, etc.)

Etymology 2

From Middle English fesen (“to drive, incite, put into action; frighten, terrify, prosecute, punish”), from Old English fēsan, fȳsan (“to hasten, impel”), from Proto-Germanic *funsijaną (“to make ready”).

Alternative forms

• faise, feaze, feese, feize, phease, pheese, pheeze, vaise, vaze, vease, veass, veese, veze[1] (dialectal)

Verb

fease (third-person singular simple present feases, present participle feasing, simple past and past participle feased)

1. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To drive; drive away; put to flight; dissipate
2. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To cause to swing about
3. (intransitive, Britain, dialectal) To swing about (in the wind); to flare (as a candle)
4. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To disturb; annoy; inconvenience; fret; worry
5. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To beat; chastise; also, to humble; harass

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ainsworth to this entry?)

6. (intransitive, Britain, dialectal) To hurry; pant; run up and down
7. (transitive, Britain, dialectal) To fetch
8. (intransitive, Britain, dialectal) To untwist; to unravel, as the end of a rope.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

References

1. Joseph Wright, English Dialect Dictionary (1900)