Also 3, 5 fele, 5–6 Sc. feill. [f. next vb.]
1. The action of feeling; an instance of this, in senses of the vb.; in quots. † a sounding of a person’s intentions, etc. (obs.); the perceiving (something) by sensation, rare.
1461. Paston Lett., No. 415, II. 50. I dede a gode fele to enquer … whan the seid Yelverton shuld go to London.
1832. L. Hunt, Sonnets, To the Grasshopper and the Cricket, Poems (1832), 208.
| Green little vaulter in the sunny grass, | |
| Catching your heart up at the feel of June. |
† b. A tentative suggestion, hint. Obs.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, X. 923. Off Gyane, thus, quhen Wallace hard a feill, ‘No land,’ he said, ‘likit him halff so weill.’
† 2. Sc. and north. a. Consciousness, sensation. b. Apprehension, sense, understanding, knowledge.
a. 1240. Wohunge, in Cott. Hom., 285. Þe muchele swetnesse of þe reaues me fele of pine.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 547 (Cott.).
| Wit bestes doumb man has his fele, | |
| O thyng man liks, il or welle. |
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 850. Has þou na force in þi fete ne fele of þiselfe?
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, II. 14. Thocht Inglis men thar of had litill feille.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 2854. That … was knycht that had most feill.
1560. Rolland, The Court of Venus, I. 467. Of that Text thow hes bot litill feill.
1603. Philotus, cxxvii. Hes thow not tint thy feill.
3. The sense of touch. Now only in to the feel.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17017 (Cott.).
| Hering, sight, smelling and fele, cheuing er wittes five. |
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 180. It is harsher to the feel.
1874. R. Atkinson, ‘Dante,’ in The Contemporary Review, XXIV. Aug., 433. In this third ledge, the fitting punishment is a bitter and foul air, dark as hell, and of a rough texture to the feel, a thick cleavable smoke.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxi. (1884), 237. It [the bed-eel] … is firm to the feel.
4. A feeling or sensation, mental or physical.
1737. H. Walpole, Corr. (1820), I. 16. With all sorts of queer feels about me.
1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary & Lett., IV. IV. 194. I put aside the disagreeable feel of exciting that wonder.
1818. Keats, in Life & Lett., I. 120. Among multitudes of men I have no feel of stooping.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, vi. 117. Aye, before he learned to know everybody by the voice, and to tell by the feel when the sun was going down.
1879. Browning, Ivàn Ivànovitch, 225. O God, the feel of the fang furrowing my shoulder!
5. As a quality of a material object: The kind of (tactual or vague organic) sensation which it produces.
1739. S. Sharp, Surg., xxvii. 135. We must judge then by the Feel of the Surface of the Bone.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 376. The forwardness of the season is indeed surprising; though it freezes at night now and then, the general feel of the air is very mild.
1794. G. Adams’s Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. App. 543. Fixed oils, also termed fat or expressed oils, … possess the following properties…. 2. An unctuous feel.
1800. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 40. Sulphat of lime … imparts that rough and harsh feel to the fingers and tongue, which characterises the insipid hard waters.
1864. Mrs. Gatty, Parables fr. Nature, Ser. IV. 155. Twinette was on the cold pavement. But she didn’t like the feel of it at all.
1882. Edna Lyall, Donovan, xx. It reminded him of the feel of little Dot’s tiny fingers.
6. Comb. of the vb. stem, as feel-horn (rare–1) = FEELER 3 [after Ger. fühlhorn].
1770. J. R. Forster, trans. Kalm’s Trav. N. Amer., I. 134. Their antennæ or feel-horns were as long as their bodies.
