Feeling vbl. sb.

[f. FEEL v. + -ING¹.]

  1.  The action of the vb. FEEL in various senses; an instance of the same. Chiefly gerundial.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 140. In þis ben yuel signes … crampe, to schite wiþoute felynge, & vnmouablete of alle þe membris.

1611.  Bible, Eph. iv. 19. Who being past feeling haue giuen themselues ouer vnto lasciuiousnesse.

1791.  Boswell, Johnson, an. 1752. Love is not a subject of reasoning, but of feeling.

1805.  Med. Jrnl., XIV. 14. From the first feeling of a febrile attack.

1833.  Regul. Instr. Cavalry (1844), 44. The horse must be kept attentive by a light feeling of the bridle.

  attrib.  1754.  A. Murphy, Gray’s-Inn Journal, No. 66. These, in their Feeling-hours of Distress, are reported to have reproached themselves with their Folly.

  † b.  In (the) feeling: = ‘to the feel’ (see FEEL sb. 3). Obs.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 305. Whanne it is not hoot in felinge.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 128. His hide not hard, or stubborne in feeling.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., 155. It is of a reddish colour, as smooth, and slippery in the feeling as soap, and exceeding bitter.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. xii. 65. The harder the Corns of Powder are in feeling, by so much the better it is.

  c.  attrib. (Cf. FEEL v. 5.)

a. 1849.  Sir R. Wilson, Life (1862), I. ii. 67. So soon as the Austrian Hussars had fired with their skirmishers a few feeling shot.

  2.  The faculty or power by which one feels (in sense 6 of the vb.); the ‘sense of touch’ in the looser acceptation of the term, in which it includes all physical sensibility not referable to the special senses of sight, hearing, taste, and smell.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 75. Hore blawing, hore smelling, heore feling wes al iattret.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid., 13. Hire fif wittes, sihðe & heringe smecchunge & smealunge & euch limes felunge.

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 17018 (Fairf.). Heryng, speche, sight, smellyng & felyng are wyttes v.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. ix. (1495), 55. The spyryte of felynge is shedde in to all the body.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Kings iv. 31. There was nether voyce ner felynge.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, X. lxxi. 306. There is not a living creature throughout the world but hath the sence of feeling, though it haue none els.

1669.  A. Browne, Ars Pictoria, 65. Finally by the feeling, we touch cold and hot, moist and dry.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 411, 21 June, ¶ 1. The Sense of Feeling can indeed give us a Notion of Extension, Shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except colours.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xli. 109. The Elephant would find out the Gold among the Lead, by the nice Feeling of his Proboscis.

1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 30. A hoof, for instance, which envelopes that part of the extremity which would otherwise touch the ground, blunts the feeling, and renders the foot incapable of seizing.

1871.  R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiv. 188.

  b.  A physical sensation or perception through the sense of touch or the general sensibility of the body.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 10. Wiþ þis felyng of þis womman God ȝaf hir witt to prophecie þus.

1614.  Raleigh, Hist. World, iii. § 7. 45. The ayre is so thinne, that it is not sufficient to beare vp the body of a bird hauing therein no feeling of her wings.

1805.  The Medical and Physical Journal, XIV. 242. It is often difficult, and frequently impossible, to describe on paper every feeling and appearance we notice, in cases which it may be proper to lay before the profession, either as curious for the physiologist or useful to the practitioner, so as to make them clear to every perception.

1851.  Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 572. All beings of a truly Animal Nature possess, there is good reason to believe, a consciousness of their own existence, first derived from a feeling of some of the corporeal changes taking place within themselves.

1884.  Bosanquet, trans. Lotze’s Metaphysic, 524. Whatever anatomical basis is given to that feeling which instructs us respecting the position, the movement, and the amount of exertion of our limbs, the fact remains that, wherever this feeling is diminished or disappears, we find it difficult or impossible to execute movements, the idea of which is none the less present to consciousness, as the idea of a task to be accomplished.

  † 3.  Passive experience; sensible proof; knowledge of an object through having felt its effects.

1526.  Tindale, Rom. v. 4. Tribulacion bryngeth pacience, pacience bryngeth felynge, felynge bryngeth hope.

1630.  R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 100. Spaine both knowes us, and hath of late had some feeling of us.

  4.  The condition of being emotionally affected; an instance of this; an emotion. Often specialized by of with fear, hope, etc.

c. 1400.  Usk, The Testament of Love, I. (1532), 327/1. Al my passyons and felynges weren loste.

1600.  J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, II. 392. The which with great feeling, and contentment having understood … he instituted a Synod.

1632.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 28. He felt in his heart … a … conceit or feeling of feare.

1639.  trans. Du Bosq’s Compl. Woman, II. 13. Separation is so often made without any feeling.

1678.  Butler, Hud., III. ii. 1685.

1814.  Scott, Wav., lxi. Feelings more easily conceived than described.

1839.  T. Beale, Sperm Whale, 281. From that moment a feeling of hopelessness ran through us of reaching her.

1856.  Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. v. 463. All classes … were agreed in one common feeling of displeasure.

1877.  E. R. Conder, The Basis of Faith, i. 13. Religious feelings differ from other feelings not by their nature but by their object.

  b.  pl. in collective sense. Emotions, susceptibilities, sympathies.

1771.  Mrs. Griffith, trans. Viaud’s Shipwreck, 4. They need none of these heightenings to interest the feelings of my friend.

1791.  Mrs. Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest, x. Still she tried to command her feelings so as to avoid disturbing the family, but they became so painful, that even the dread of La Motte’s ridicule had hardly power to prevent her quitting the chamber.

1804.  Nelson, Lett. (1814), II. 57. Do not hurt my feelings by telling me that I neglect any opportunity.

1828.  J. W. Croker, C. Papers (1884), I. xiii. 404. All my time being employed in assuaging what gentlemen call their feelings.

1850.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., vii. Both saw the absolute necessity of putting a constraint on their feelings.

  5.  Capacity or readiness to feel; susceptibility to the higher and more refined emotions; esp. sensibility or tenderness for the sufferings of others. Good feeling: kindly and equitable spirit.

1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, IV. ii. 80.

1600.  E. Blount, trans. Conestaggio, 44. Who if he had any feeling of a man, should be rather contented, to liue subiect to my Empire, according to our lawes.

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 33. To personate their King: who (no doubt, out of a Princely feeling), was sparing, and compassionate towards his Subjects.

1731.  Swift, Lett. to Gay, 10 Sept. She has … not one grain of Feeling.

1752.  Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 4. When you present a poem or a picture to a man possessed of this talent, the delicacy of his feeling makes him be sensibly touched with every part of it.

1802.  Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xvii. 142. He thinks I have no feeling.

1811.  Jane Austen, Sense & Sens., I. xv. 190. Is he not a man of honour and feeling?

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 89. The Church of England was saved from this outrage by the good sense and good feeling of the pope.

1849.  Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, ii. § 19. 49. A woman of feeling would not wear false jewels.

  6.  Pleasurable or painful consciousness, emotional appreciation or sense (of one’s own condition or some external fact).

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 6449.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 287.

1638.  Sir R. Baker, trans. Letters of Mounsieur de Balzac, I. 69. The feeling I have of the courtesies received from him.

1683.  D. A., Art Converse, 56. You would easily be wrought into some feeling of your folly in this point.

1705.  Stanhope, Paraphr., II. 296. They have already sufficient feeling of their disease.

1814.  D’Israeli, Quarrels Auth. (1867), 379. He was also too haughty to ask a favour, and too conscious of his superiority to betray a feeling of injury.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, ii. To encourage with a feeling of safety those whom fear might otherwise prevent from risking themselves in peril.

1874.  Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 30–1. Everything interfering in any way with the feeling of perfect equality inside the church should be avoided.

  7.  What one feels in regard to something; emotional attitude or opinion, sentiment. † In early use (cf. FEEL v. 15 a): Opinion.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., 87. The disturblaunce and dyuerse feelingis had among ȝou silf now in Ynglond.

c. 1450.  trans. De Imitatione, I. ix. Wherfore truste not to muche in thin ovne felyng, but desire gladly to here oþir mennys felinges.

1760.  Goldsm., Cit. W., xxxviii. If we survey a king not only opposing his own feelings, but reluctantly refusing those he regards.

1771.  Mrs. Griffith, trans. Viaud’s Shipwreck, 236. I communicated my thoughts and feelings to Mr. Wright.

1828.  D’Israeli, Chas. I., I. v. 120. The feelings of the Romanists were sadly put to the test by a circumstance which now occurred. Ibid., II. xi. 287. The feelings of two ages attest the greatness of Hampden’s name.

1863.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 186. You know my feelings about religious excitement—ecstatics; I cannot regard that as a genuine element of religion. Was not Christ Himself, on the cross, calm, simple?

1874.  Green, Short Hist., viii. § 10. 577. Cromwell bowed to the feeling of the nation.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 7, Laws, Introduction. They have the feelings of old men about youth, about the state, about human things in general.

  b.  transf. Of a language: Instinctive preferences of expression.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. p. xv., Introduction. The feeling of the modern language is more opposed to tautology.

  c.  In commercial use, Feeling (of the market): the degree of readiness to buy prevailing amongst traders.

1888.  Daily News, 11, July 2/7. An improved feeling is also perceptible in ropes.

  8.  In objective sense: The quality or condition which is felt to belong to anything; the impression produced by it upon a person.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 301. The apprehension of the good, Giues but the greater feeling to the worse.

1884.  W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 45.

  9.  Psychol. a. By some writers (e.g., Brown, J. Mill, J. S. Mill used for ‘a fact or state of consciousness.’ b. By others as a generic term comprising sensation, desire, and emotion, but excluding perception and thought. c. After Kant’s use of gefühl, restricted to the element of pleasure or pain in any mental state. d. An intuitive cognition or belief neither requiring nor admitting of proof.

1739.  Hume, Treatise, I. IV. § 4. I. 513. Tho’ bodies are felt by means of their solidity, yet the feeling is a quite different thing from the solidity.

c. 1810.  Brown, Lect. Philos., xi. (1838), 71. Consciousness … is only a general term for all our feelings, of whatever species these may be,—sensations, thoughts, desires;—in short, all those states or affections of mind, in which the phenomena of mind consist. Ibid., xxvi. (1838), 166/2. The feelings of extension, resistance, joy, sorrow, fragrance, colour, hope, fear, heat, cold, admiration, resentment.

1836–7.  Hamilton, Lect. Metaph. (1859), I. xi. 186. This division of the phenomena of mind into the three great classes of the Cognitive faculties,—the Feelings, or capacities of Pleasure and Pain,—and the Exertive or Conative Powers … was first promulgated by Kant. Ibid., II. xli. 492. The first grand distribution of our feelings will, therefore, be into the Sensations,—that is the Sensitive or External Feelings; and into the Sentiments,—that is, the Mental or Internal Feelings. Ibid. (1841–2), in Reid’s Wks., 760. Feeling is a term preferable to Consciousness … in so far as the latter does not mark so well the simplicity, ultimacy, and incomprehensibility of our original apprehensions.

1846.  Mill, Logic, I. iii. § 3. 66. Feeling, in the proper sense of the term, is a genus, of which Sensation, Emotion, and Thought, are subordinate species.

1855.  Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, I. i. § 3. The presence of Feeling is the foremost and most unmistakeable mark of mind.

1871.  Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), II. xv. 375. Feeling appeared in the world before knowledge.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 14, Philebus, Introduction. Feeling is not opposed to knowledge, and in all consciousness there is an element of both.

1892.  J. Sully, The Human Mind, iv. I. 64. The term feeling … in a stricter sense is confined to those modes of consciousness which are in a peculiar sense affections of the subject, and which do not, in the same direct way as our thoughts and volitions, involve a clear reference to objects. Ibid., xiii. II. 1. We include under the head of feeling all psychical states or phenomena so far as they have the element or aspect of the agreeable and disagreeable. Ibid., 8. The proposition that feeling as such has no quality (apart from the feeling-quality itself, agreeableness, disagreeableness) is held by most psychologists.

  10.  In Fine Art; cf. senses 4–6. a. Painting. (see quot. 1854). b. Archit. The general tone of a building or style of architecture; the impression produced on a spectator.

1854.  Fairholt, Dict. Terms Art, Feeling. That visible quality in a work of Art which forcibly depicts the mental emotion of the painter, or which exhibits his perfect mastery over the materials of Art.

1859.  Jephson, Brittany, v. 52. To the south is a favourable example of Renaissance, retaining as it does much Gothic feeling.

1874.  Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 10. If the whole feeling of a building leads up to one point, it matters little whether that point be always visible or not.

  c.  Of a musical performer: Sympathetic appreciation of the emotional purport of a composition, manifested in the manner of rendering.

1824.  Byron, Juan, XVI. xli. The circle … applauds … the tones, the feeling, and the execution.