fist

See also FIST

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English fisten, fiesten, from Old English *fistan ("to break wind gently"; supported by Old English fisting (“breaking wind”)), from Proto-Germanic *fistaz (“breaking wind, fart”), from Proto-Germanic *fīsaną (“to break or discharge wind, fart”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Cognate with Dutch veest (“a fart”), Low German fīsten (“to break wind”), German Fist (“a quiet wind”), Fisten (“breaking wind”), Swedish fisa (“to fart”), Latin spīrō (“breathe, blow”), Albanian fryj (“to blow, breath”).

Verb

fist (third-person singular simple present fists, present participle fisting, simple past and past participle fisted)

  1. (intransitive) To break wind.
Derived terms

Noun

fist (plural fists)

  1. The act of breaking wind; fise.
  2. A puffball.

Etymology 2

From Middle English fist, from Old English fȳst (“fist”), from Proto-Germanic *funstiz (compare West Frisian fûst, Dutch vuist, German Faust), from Proto-Indo-European *pn̥kʷ-sti 'fist' (compare Lithuanian kùmstė, Old Church Slavonic pęstĭ), from *pénkʷe 'five'. More at five.

Noun

fist (plural fists)

  1. hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward
    The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.
  2. (printing) the pointing hand symbol ☞
  3. (ham radio) the characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code
  4. (slang) a person's characteristic handwriting
  5. A group of men
Synonyms
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Derived terms
terms derived from fist (noun)
Related terms
Translations
clenched hand
(printing) the pointing hand symbol
(ham radio) the characteristic signaling rhythm

Verb

fist (third-person singular simple present fists, present participle fisting, simple past and past participle fisted)

  1. To strike with the fist.
    ...may not score a point with his open hand(s), but may score a point by fisting the ball. Damian Cullen. "Running the rule." The Irish Times 18 Aug 2003, pg. 52.
  2. To close (the hand) into a fist.
    • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 29:
      He noticed Ada's trick of hiding her fingernails by fisting her hand or stretching it with the palm turned upward when helping herself to a biscuit.
  3. To grip with a fist.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 34
      I am an officer; but, how I wish I could fist a bit of old-fashioned beef in the fore-castle, as I used to when I was before the mast.
  4. (slang) To fist-fuck.
Translations
to strike with the fist

See also

Anagrams

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Last modified on 21 May 2013, at 19:29