Also 4 feltte, 5 feelte, 6 fealt,) felte, fylt. [OE. felt = MDu. and Du. vilt, OHG. filz (MHG. vilz, mod.G. filz), Sw. and Da. filt:—OTeut. *felto-z-, filtiz- :—pre-Teut. *peldos-, -es-. Kluge compares OSlav. plŭstĭ of same meaning.
From the WGer. *filtir:—OTeut. *filtiz comes the med.L. filtrum FILTER.]
1. A kind of cloth or stuff made of wool, or of wool and fur or hair, fulled or wrought into a compact substance by rolling and pressure, with lees or size. Also pl.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 120. Centrum, uel filtrum, felt.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 154/2. Feelte or quylte, filtrum.
c. 1450. J. de Garlande, in Wright, Voc., 124. Capellarii faciunt capella (hattys) de fultro (feltte) sive centone.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 311. The Tartars that inhabite the midland or inner regions, bringe none other wares then truckes or droues of swyfte runnynge horses and clokes made of whyte feltes: also hales or tentes to withstonde th[e] iniuries of coulde and rayne.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. xiii. (1614), 411. They haue also Idols of Felt, in the fashion of a man, and the same they set on both sides of their Tent-doores, and vnder them they put a thing of Felt fashioned like a Dugge.
1675. Ogilby, Brit., 66. Their chief Trade is in making White Serges and Felts.
1801. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Tears & Smiles, Wks. 1812, V. 58.
| And now amid the hags and owls, | |
| And gliding Spectres pale, | |
| Mute Silence, with her feet in felt, | |
| Did stalk from vale to vale. |
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xviii. After dark there come some visitors, with shoes of felt.
1892. Daily News, 18 May, 2/7. A fair trade is passing in … felts.
2. A piece of this material, something made of felt. † In early use: A filter made of felt or cloth.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, A j b. The first without coste is done thrughe a thre cornered fylt named per filtri distillacionem.
1544. Phaer, Regim. Lyfe (1553), G vij a. Take a great sponge or els a felt of a hat and stiepe it in wine.
c. 1550. Lloyd, Treas. Health (1585), I j. A felte of heare or cloth.
1612. Woodall, The Surgeons Mate, Wks. (1653), 253. Filtrum, a felt. This filtring with a felt, is a kind of preparation of medicines liquid, to purge them from their terrestrial parts.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xxxi. (1737), 128. His Throat, like a Felt to distil Hippocras.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. III. xxxiv. 155. On the sides of the room are felts about a yard broad, and generally two or three yards long; these are called næmets.
1853. M. Arnold, Sohrab & Rustum, 24.
| And Sohrab came there, and went in, and stood | |
| Upon the thick piled carpets in the tent, | |
| And found the old man sleeping on the bed | |
| Of rugs and felts, and near him lay his arms. |
b. esp. A felt hat.
c. 1450. Merlin, 279. And on his heede a felt.
1552. Act 5–6 Edw. VI., c. 24 § 2. They that shall so make or work any such Felts or Hats.
1587. Turberv., Epit. & Sonn. (1837), 386.
| The Cassocke beares his fealt, | |
| to force away the raine: | |
| Their bridles are not very braue, | |
| their saddles are but plaine. |
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., I. (1626), 18.
| He wings his heeles, puts on his Felt, and takes | |
| His drowsie Rod; the Towre of Ioue forsakes. |
1745. De Foe’s Eng. Tradesman, xxvi. (1841), I. 263. The hat is a felt, from Leicester.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., The Theatre (1852), 166.
| The youth with joy unfeign’d | |
| Regained the felt, and felt what he regained. |
1892. Pall Mall G., 18 Aug., 1/2. There is no very striking novelty in felts.
† c. transf. A hat made of any other material.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., I. i.
| Your feet in mouldie slippers, for your kibes, | |
| A felt of rugg, and a thin thredden cloake, | |
| That scarce would cover your no-buttocks. |
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1638), 338. Others weare high caps or felts made of fine twigs.
3. A thickly matted mass of hair or other fibrous substance; hence, a provincial name for the creeping wheat-grass or couch-grass (Triticum repens).
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1689. Faxe fyltered & felt flosed hym vmbe.
1794. Statist. Acc. Scotl., XI. 374. This soil, which, being light, is soon impoverished by a continuation of crops, and if not regularly cleaned by pasturing and crops of turnips, is apt to be over-run with the creeping wheat-grass, known by the vulgar name of felt, or pirl-grass.
1866. Gregor, Dial. Banff. ‘The lan’s a’ ae felt of weeds.’ ‘That steer hiz a richt felt o’ hair.’
4. attrib. and Comb., a. attrib. in sense ‘concerned with felt,’ as felt-branch; ‘suitable for felting,’ as felt-wool; ‘made of felt,’ as felt-cap, -cape, -carpet, -carpeting, -cloak, -cloth, -hat, -mantle; also felt-like adj. b. objective, as felt-maker, -making, -monger, -roller, -washer. c. instrumental, as felt-lined, -shod.
1883. Daily News, 17 Sept., 2/3. Quietness still prevails in the *felt branches.
1886. Sheldon, trans. Flaubert’s Salammbô, 8. These slaves wore on their shaven heads little, conical-shaped, black *felt caps; their feet were shod in wooden sandals, and as they ran, their chaines clattered like the iron felloes of a moving chariot.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. iv. 133. Their plaid trousers and *felt capes.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Felt-carpet. A carpet whose fibers are not spun or woven, but are associated by the felting process.
1881. Every Man his own Mechanic, § 798. 366. A piece of *felt carpeting.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 162. *Felt clokes.
1882. in Ogilvie (Annandale), *Felt-cloth.
1457. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, III. 555/3. 1 *felt hat, -/10.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 190. The Strike must be made ready, by tacking (that is slightly nailing) 2 pieces of an old Felt-hat.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. xiii. 258. A broad felt hat, long boots, and a haversack behind his saddle, showed him to be a traveller, seemingly a horse dealer.
1611. Cotgr., Feustre … the thicke hairen and *felt-like stuffe vsed by Sadlers for stuffing.
1893. Daily News, 6 March, 7/4. In *felt-lined cases.
1562. Act 5 Eliz., c. 4 § 3. Hatmakers or *Feltmakers.
1641. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., xiv. 64. That Taylers, Shoomakers, Braziers, Feltmakers, doe climbe our publick Pulpits.
1879. C. Dickens, Dict. Lond., 70/3. City Companies … Feltmakers.
1665–6. Pepys, Diary (1879), III. 386. And here a good lucture of Mr. Hooke’s about the trade of *felt-making, very pretty.
1844. J. Rennie, Bird Archit., 202. Felt-making Birds.
1583. Hollyband, Campo di Fior, 381. Bring me my long *felt mantell.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Pastoral Wks., III. 58/1. Felmongers, Leather sellers, *Feltmongers, Taylors, and an infinite number of other Trades and Functions.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Felt. 2…. Appurtenances of the felt are known as *felt-washers, *felt-rollers, etc.
1844. I. Williams, Baptistery, xxiii. 240.
| Where silence, wont her watch to keep, | |
| With *felt-shod footsteps softly went, | |
| And oe’r the sleeper stilly bent. |
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 626. And the wooll thereof … is called Feltriolana, *Felt-wooll.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4184/4. 302. Bags of Cloth wash’d and unwash’d Spanish Felt Wooll.
b. Special combs., as felt-grain (see quot. 1874); † felt-lock, ? a matted forelock; felt-work, a structure resembling felt.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 187. *Felt-grain … is that Grain which is seen to run round in Rings at the end of a Tree.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Felt-grain. (Wood-working.) The grain of wood whose direction is from the pith to the bark; the direction of the medullary rays in oak and some other timber.
1631. Shirley, Mart. Souldier, IV. iii., in Bullen, O. Pl., I. 236. There sits my wife kembing her haire, which curles like a witches *felt-locks.
1650. J. Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis, 53. For which cause they [the Irish] nourish long Fealt-locks hanging down to their shoulders.
1844. J. Rennie, Bird Archit., 209. Several species of birds which construct nests of *felt-work in Southern Africa.
