Forms: 3–6 fers(e, (4 firs), 4–6 fiers(e, fyers(e, 6 fearce, -se, (5 feres, -ys, fuerse, furse, 5–6 feers(e, 6 fayrse, ferse), 3– fierce. See also FEER a. [a. OF. fers, fiers in same senses, nom. form of fer, fier (mod.F. fier proud) = Prov. fer, It. and Sp. fiero:—L. ferus wild (of an animal), untamed, fierce.]
1. Of formidably violent and intractable temper, like a wild beast; vehement and merciless in anger or hostility.
Less emphatic, and less associated with the notion of wanton cruelty, than FEROCIOUS, which was never used, like this word, in a good sense (see 2).
a. of persons, their dispositions or attributes.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2195.
| O cus com nembrot al-sua, þat in his time wroght mikel waa, | |
| For he was fers, prud, and fell. |
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 1.
| Yow fiers god of armes Mars the rede | |
| That in þe frosty contrey called Trace. |
1485. Caxton, Charles the Grete, 26. He was a man wel faryng of hys body & grete of persone and had hys syght and regarde fyers & malycyous.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., 10.
| Thus armde at last with euerie péece the Bishop commeth in, | |
| Aproching to the Altar hie, with countnaunce ferce and grim. |
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. iv. 57.
| Thou was’t a Souldier | |
| Even to Calves wish, not fierce and terrible | |
| Onely in strokes. |
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 44.
| He ceas’d, and next him Moloc, Scepter’d King | |
| Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit | |
| That fought in Heav’n; now fiercer by despair. |
1712–4. Pope, Rape Lock, IV. 7.
| Not tyrants fierce, that unrepenting die | |
| Not Cynthia, when her mantua’s pinn’d awry. |
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxviii. ‘I accept your words,’ said Montoni, turning upon him with a fierce and haughty look, and drawing his sword out of the scabbard.
1812. J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, II. 578.
| And, what if here fierce savage men | |
| Glare on them from some darksome den? |
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, I. xxxii. 277. Hugh Lupus, the fierce old Earl of Chester, was likewise a Lord Marcher, and had, like the Bishop of Durham, the almost royal powers of a Count Palatine, because, dwelling on the frontier, it was necessary that the executive power should be prompt and absolute.
absol. 1820. Keats, Hyperion, II. 250.
| With hectic lips, and eyes up-looking mild, | |
| Thus wording timidly among the fierce. |
b. of animals.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 300. Ac god sent hem fode bi foules · and by no fierse bestes.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3922.
| Þan come a beste of a busche · with a blak heued, | |
| Mad & merkid as a Meere · þe mast of þe werd, | |
| Fere fersere þan an olifant. |
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. xlvii. 281. Swine … bee not so fearce as to fall to rending downe of the tree.
1611. Bible, Job x. 16. Thou huntest me as a fierce Lion: and againe thou shewest thy selfe marueilous vpon me.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 739.
| The Rocks were mov’d to pity with his Moan: | |
| Trees bent their Heads to hear him sing his Wrongs. | |
| Fierce Tigers couch’d around, and loll’d their fawning Tongues. |
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 253.
| Poetry disarms | |
| The fiercest animals with magic charms. |
1874. C. Geikie, Life in Woods, v. 84. It is amazing how fierce some of the small snakes are.
absol. c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 888. So þe fuerse by-flamede all with fyre hote.
† 2. High-spirited, brave, valiant. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 3910.
| Al so þe dosse pers | |
| Of france were þer echon þat so noble were & fers. |
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 101. Be þay fers, be þay feble for-loteȝ none.
1475. The Boke of Noblesse, 2. Next after came the feers manly Danysh nacion.
1485. Caxton, Charles the Grete, 74. When Fyerabras herde that oliuer was so fyers of fayt and of courage he had grete meruaylle.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lv. 185. Our man is fyers and of gret hardynes. Ibid. (1546) Gold. Bk. M. Aurel., F viij. A lusty horse fyerse and flingyng.
† 3. Proud, haughty. Obs. Cf. F. fier.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 272/34.
| Gret folk he saiȝ come | |
| wel on horse, with grete nobleye; swyþe fierce and proute. |
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. xlix. (1869), 30. But of yow j haue no neede; haue your herte neuere þe more feers.
c. 1430. A B C of Aristotle, in Babees Bk. (1868), 11. F to fers, ne to famuler, but freendli of cheere.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. ix. 45.
| King. In any case, be not to rough in termes, | |
| For he is fierce, and cannot brooke hard Language. |
4. Of natural forces, e.g., fire, wind, etc.; also of passion, disease, conflict, persecution, etc.: Angry, violent, vehemently raging.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23239 (Gött.).
| Þa dintes er ful fers and fell, | |
| Þarder þan dint of irin mell. | |
| Ibid. (c. 1340), 1854 (Trin.). | |
| Aboute fyue moneþes hit stode | |
| Wiþouten falling þat fers flode. |
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 436. Saue a fers feintise · folwes me oft.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 568.
| Wo shuld pas out of perell fro þo proude exin, | |
| Þat with flamys of fyre han so furse hete? |
c. 1450. Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 4579.
| In þ same tyme, as storys tell, | |
| Persecucioun fers and fell. |
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, lxii. 162. The bataylle was fyerse and cruelle.
1508. Fisher, Wks. (1876), I. 279. The cruell assautes of deth was fyers and sharpe ayenst him.
1508. in Arnolde’s Chron. (1811), p. xliii. The Duke of Burgon … was dryuen in to Englond, with a ferse streynable wynde, in ther selynge towarde Spayn.
1611. Bible, Jer. xxv. 37. And the peaceable habitations are cut downe because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Pastorals, II. 14.
| The creaking Locusts with my Voice conspire, | |
| They fry’d with Heat, and I with fierce Desire. |
1708. Pope, Ode St. Cecilia, 118.
| Music the fiercest grief can charm, | |
| And Fate’s severest rage disarm. |
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 9. If the rocket burst as soon as it is lighted, then the charge is too fierce.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 173. He [Clarendon] had left England with a mind heated by a fierce conflict which had ended in the downfall of his party and of his own fortunes.
1863. Bryant, Poems, The Little People of the Snow, 283.
| Cruel, cruel one, | |
| To tempt our daughter thus, and cruel we, | |
| Who suffered her to wander forth alone | |
| In this fierce cold! |
1874. Deutsch, Rem., 419–20. It is, however, this same rudimentary state of investigation—after two centuries and a half of fierce discussion—which has left the other and much more important question of the Age and Origin of the Sam. Pent. as unsettled to-day as it was when it first came under the notice of European scholars.
5. Ardent, eager; full of violent desire; furiously zealous or active, † Const. for, to, upon, and to with inf.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 67. To affaiten hire flesshe · þat fierce was to synne.
c. 1450. Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 7259.
| To his kirke ornaments diuers | |
| For to gyue sho was full fers. |
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. vii. 102. He on cace was fleand fers as flynt.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster (1602), V. iii.
| And, Lupus, for your fierce Credulity, | |
| One fit him with a paire of larger Eares. |
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., IV. (1702), I. 239. Mr. Strode (one of the Fiercest men of the Party; and of the Party only for his Fierceness).
1654. Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 149. He is of that faction and fierce for the Duke of Gloucesters returne hither.
1702. The English Theophrastus, 314. Rash Men do many things in haste, that they repent of at leisure. ’Tis not good to be over fierce upon any thing, for fear of mistaking or misunderstanding the Matter in Question.
a. 1744. Pope, Odyssey, VIII.
| Destruction enters in the treacherous wood, | |
| And vengeful slaughter, fierce for human blood. |
1871. Browning, Balaust., 1821.
| Half a mountain-goat | |
| Torn up and swallowed down,—the feast was fierce | |
| But brief. |
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 115. Oxford, ‘the sweet city with her dreaming spires,’ where there has ever been so much detachment from the world, alongside of the coarsest and fiercest hunt after the grosser prizes of the world.
b. dial. Brisk, lively, vigorous.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss. ‘If thoo ’s so fierce ower thee work i’ th’ mornin’ thoo ’ll be dauled oot afore neet.’
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss., ‘Ah’m glad to see ye luke so feece to-dee.’
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., ‘Oh, they were fierce; they were as merry as crickets.’
† 6. Of a number: Great, immense. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1617.
| And fild it with folke fuerse was þe nowmber, | |
| Of lordes of þe lond and oþer lesse peopull. | |
| Ibid., 2271. | |
| So fele fightyng folke be a fuerse nowmber. |
7. quasi-adv. = Fiercely.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1765 (Cott.). Þe rain it fell sua fers and fast.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. i. 14.
| His sparkling Eyes, repleat with wrathfull fire, | |
| More dazled and droue back his Enemies, | |
| Then mid-day Sunne, fierce bent against their faces. |
1771. Goldsm., Hist. Eng., IV. 164. Nothing now, therefore, remained of the Whig system, which continued to rage as fierce as ever, and which increased in expence every year as it went on.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 102. The war, which was now all but extinguished, might blaze forth fiercer than ever.
8. attrib. and Comb.; a. parasynthetic, as fierce-eyed, faced, -fanged, -minded, -natured. b. adverbial, as fierce-descending, -flaming, -looking, -menacing, -rushing, -trotted.
1735. Thomson, Liberty, V. 43.
| By no baneful herb, | |
| No darting tiger, no grim lion’s glare, | |
| No *fierce-descending wolf, no serpent roll’d | |
| In spires immense progressive o’er the land, | |
| Disturb’d. |
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, vii. 227, Eurpides’ Orestes.
| Or. O Phœbus! They will slay me, those dog-faced, | |
| *Fierce-eyed, infernal ministers, dread goddesses! |
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. liv. 110. It was sometimes after a white-lipped, fierce-eyed temptation with murdering fingers had made its demon-visit that these best moments of inward crying and clinging for rescue would come to her.
1892. Pall Mall G., 21 Jan., 3/1. These … *fierce-faced beasts, with their noiseless footfall.
1851. H. Melville, Whale, xlii. 209. Not the *fierce-fanged tiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded bear or shark.
1740. C. Pitt, Æneid, XII. 1337.
| His Eyes, *fierce-flaming, o’er the Trophy roll, | |
| That wakes the slumbring Vengeance in his Soul. |
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. 23. The writers and speakers who had taken the greatest liberties went in constant fear of being accosted by *fierce-looking captains, and required to make an immediate choice between fighting and being caned.
1735. Somerville, The Chace, III. 301.
| Another Pard his bristly Whiskers curls, | |
| Grins as he grins, *fierce-menacing, and wide | |
| Distends his op’ning Paws. |
1785. Cruttwell, Bible, 3 Macc. vi. 18. The body of the king shook with fear, and forgetfulness seized his *fierce-minded confidence.
1625–8. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., II. (1688), 246. This Parsons was of Somersetshire, a violent, *fierce-natur’d man, and of a rough Behaviour.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXIII. 75.
| A boar *fierce-rushing in the sylvan war | |
| Plow’d half his thigh; I saw, I saw the fear. |
Hence † Fiercehead. [+ -HEAD] = Fierceness.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 156/2. Fercehede, ferocitas, severitas.
