[ad. L. ferīn-us, f. fera wild beast. Cf. Fr. férin (sense 3).]
A. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to, or of the nature of, a wild animal, or wild animals.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 865. Transmigration of Humane Souls there into Ferine Bodies.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais (1737), V. 230.
| Some in ferine Venation take Delight, | |
| For Cony-caption some have Appetite. |
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, V. xi. The season of rutting (an uncouth phrase, by which the vulgar denote that gentle dalliance, which, in the well-wooded forest of Hampshire, passes between lovers of the ferine kind).
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, i. 16 With mere physical courage he [man] is only a more cool and calculating rival of dogs and cocks and tigers, and other ferine combatants.
b. Wild, untamed.
1677. Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, II. vii. 202. The only difficulty … is touching those ferine, noxious, and untamable Beasts, as Lions, Tigers, Wolves, Bears, and Foxes with which that Continent abounds.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., IV. x. 178 Such as are of a Ferine, not a Domestick Nature, and consequently out of the command and management of Man!
1728. J. Morgan, Algiers, I. Pref. 6. Guides himself by no other Instinct, than one like that of the ferine Animals.
2. Of human beings, their actions and attributes: Bestial, beast-like.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, xvi. 165. There are brutish and unnaturall Desires, which the Philosopher calleth [Greek] ferine and inhumane, instancing in those barbarous Countries, where they use to eat mens flesh and raw meat; and in the Woman who ripped up Women with childe that shee might eat their young ones.
1678. Norris, Coll. Misc. (1699), 305. A man to … suffer the ferine and brutish part to get the Ascendant over that which is Rational and Divine.
1786. trans. Swedenborg’s Chr. Relig., § 588. A man … from his inherent ferine nature would plunder and massacre.
1822. Southey, in Quarterly Review, XXVI. Jan., 294. To make war upon them with any hope or chance of success, it was necessary to become as ferine as themselves.
absol. 1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, II. 218/2. Vittoria. Geese and buffaloes are enraged at certain colours; there are certain colours also of the mind lively enough to excite choler at a distance in the silly and ferine.
3. Of a disease: Malignant. rare.
1666. G. Harvey, Morb. Angl., x. 103. Thus a ferin Catarrh happens, which through it’s corrosive quality oft Ulcerates the Lungs.
1884. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
B. sb. A wild beast.
In mod. Dicts.
Hence Ferinely adv., Ferineness.
1677. Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, II. vii. 197. A conversation with those that having been long there were faln into a more barbarous habit of Life and Manners, would easily assimilate at least the next Generation to Barbarism and Ferineness.
1847. Craig, Ferinely.
