German

Noun

Fell n ‎(genitive Fells or Felles, plural Felle, diminutive Fellchen n)

1. fur, pelt (hairy skin of an animal)
2. hide (the detached, tanned skin of an animal)

Declension

Derived terms

• Fellstiefel
• Fellhandschuh
• Fellmütze
• Lammfell
• Schaffell
• Ziegenfell
• Büffelfell

English

Verb

fell ‎(third-person singular simple present fells, present participle felling, simple past and past participle felled)

1. (transitive) To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.
   • Shakespeare

     Stand, or I'll fell thee down.

   • 2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales:

     Sinclair opened Swansea's account from the spot on 8 minutes after a Ryan Shawcross tackle had felled Wayne Routledge.

2. (transitive) To strike down, kill, destroy.
   • 2016 January 17, "What Weiner Reveals About Huma Abedin," Vanity Fair (retrieved 21 January 2016):

     This Sunday marks the debut of Weiner, a documentary that follows former congressman Anthony Weiner in his attempt to overcome a sexting scandal and run for mayor of New York City—only to be felled, somewhat inexplicably, by another sexting scandal.

     1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Chessmen of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2010:

     Gahan, horrified, saw the latter's head topple from its body, saw the body stagger and fall to the ground. ... The creature that had felled its companion was dashing madly in the direction of the hill upon which he was hidden, it dodged one of the workers that sought to seize it. … Then it was that Gahan's eyes chanced to return to the figure of the creature the fugitive had felled.

     2010 September 27, Christina Passariello, “Prodos Capital, Samsung Make Final Cut for Ferré”, in Wall Street Journal, retrieved 2012-08-26:

     … could make Ferré the first major fashion label felled by the economic crisis to come out the other end of restructuring.

3. (sewing) To stitch down a protruding flap of fabric, as a seam allowance, or pleat.
   • 2006, Colette Wolff, The Art of Manipulating Fabric, page 296:

     To fell seam allowances, catch the lining underneath before emerging 1/4" (6mm) ahead, and 1/8" (3mm) to 1/4" (6mm) into the seam allowance.

Translations

Noun

The fell, or stitched down portion of a kilt

fell ‎(plural fells)

1. A cutting-down of timber.
2. The stitching down of a fold of cloth; specifically, the portion of a kilt, from the waist to the seat, where the pleats are stitched down.
3. (textiles) The end of a web, formed by the last thread of the weft.

Translations

Verb

fell

1. simple past tense of fall

Etymology 2

Old English fell ‎(“hide, skin, pelt”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (compare West Frisian fel, Dutch vel, German Fell), from Proto-Indo-European *pélno ‎(“skin, animal hide”) (compare Latin pellis ‎(“skin”), Lithuanian plėnė ‎(“skin”), Russian плена́ ‎(plená, “pelt”), Albanian plah ‎(“to cover”), Ancient Greek πέλλᾱς ‎(péllās, “skin”)).

Noun

fell ‎(plural fells)

1. An animal skin, hide, pelt.
   • Shakespeare:

     We are still handling our ewes, and their fells, you know, are greasy.

2. Human skin (now only as a metaphorical use of previous sense).
   • c. 1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:

     For he is fader of feith · fourmed ȝow alle / Bothe with fel and with face.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Old Norse fell, fjall ‎(“rock, mountain”), from Proto-Germanic *felzą, *fel(e)zaz, *falisaz (compare German Felsen 'boulder, cliff', Middle Low German vels 'hill, mountain'), from Proto-Indo-European *pelso; compare Irish aill ‎(“boulder, cliff”), Latin Palatium, Ancient Greek πέλλα ‎(pélla, “stone”), Pashto پرښه ‎(parṣ̌a, “rock, rocky ledge”), Sanskrit पाषाण ‎(pāşāņá, “stone”). Compare Pella.

Noun

fell ‎(plural fells)

Typical fells in Scandinavia.

1. (archaic outside Britain) A rocky ridge or chain of mountains.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of T. Gray to this entry?)

   • 1937 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

     The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,

     While hammers fell like ringing bells,

     In places deep, where dark things sleep,

     In hollow halls beneath the fells.

   • 1886, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Squire of Sandal-Side : A Pastoral Romance:

     Every now and then the sea calls some farmer or shepherd, and the restless drop in his veins gives him no peace till he has found his way over the hills and fells to the port of Whitehaven, and gone back to the cradling bosom that rocked his ancestors.

   • 1971 Catherine Cookson, The Dwelling Place

     She didn't know at first why she stepped off the road and climbed the bank on to the fells; it wasn't until she found herself skirting a disused quarry that she realised where she was making for, and when she reached the place she stood and gazed at it. It was a hollow within an outcrop of rock, not large enough to call a cave but deep enough to shelter eight people from the rain, and with room to spare.

2. (archaic outside Britain) A wild field or upland moor.

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English fel, fell ‎(“strong, fierce, terrible, cruel, angry”), from Old English *fel, *felo, *fæle ‎(“cruel, savage, fierce”) (only in compounds, wælfel ‎(“bloodthirsty”), ealfelo ‎(“evil, baleful”), ælfæle ‎(“very dire”), etc.), from Proto-Germanic *faluz ‎(“wicked, cruel, terrifying”), from Proto-Indo-European *pol- ‎(“to pour, flow, swim, fly”). Cognate with Old Frisian fal ‎(“cruel”), Old Dutch fel ‎(“wrathful, cruel, bad, base”), Danish fæl ‎(“disgusting, hideous, ghastly, grim”), Middle High German vālant ‎(“imp”). See felon.

Adjective

fell ‎(comparative feller, superlative fellest)

1. Of a strong and cruel nature; eagre and unsparing; grim; fierce; ruthless; savage.

   one fell swoop‎

   • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

     while we devise fell tortures for thy faults

   • 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2

     And many a serpent of fell kind, / With wings before, and stings behind

   • 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:

     The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “chapter XIX”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     No words had been exchanged between Upjohn and self on the journey out, but the glimpses I had caught of his face from the corner of the eyes had told me that he was grim and resolute, his supply of the milk of human kindness plainly short by several gallons. No hope, it seemed to me, of turning him from his fell purpose.

2. (Britain dialectal, Scotland) Strong and fiery; biting; keen; sharp; pungent; clever.
3. (obsolete) Eager; earnest; intent.
   • Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)

     I am so fell to my business.

Adverb

fell ‎(comparative more fell, superlative most fell)

1. Sharply; fiercely.

Derived terms

• fellness

Noun

fell ‎(uncountable)

1. Gall; anger; melancholy.
   • Spenser:

     Untroubled of vile fear or bitter fell.

   • XIX c., Gerard Manley Hopkins, I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day

     I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.

Noun

fell

1. (mining) The finer portions of ore, which go through the meshes when the ore is sorted by sifting.

Statistics

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *spesla, methatesized form of *spelsa, from Proto-Indo-European *pels 'rock, boulder', variant of *spel- 'to cleave, break'. Compare Latin hydronym Pelso, Latin Palatium, Pashto پرښه ‎(parša, “rock, rocky ledge”), German Felsen 'boulder, cliff'. Also compare Greek σπήλαιο ‎(spílaio) ‘cave, cavern’. Mostly dialectal, used in Gheg Albanian.

Adverb

fell

1. deep, shallow

Derived terms

• fellë

Related terms

• fyell

Icelandic

Etymology

Old Norse

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛtl/
• Rhymes: -ɛtl

Noun

fell n ‎(genitive singular fells, nominative plural fell)

1. hill

Declension

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

fell

1. imperative of felle

Old English

Alternative forms

• fel

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fellą, whence also Old High German vel

Noun

fell n

1. fell
2. skin