(adv.) From; away; back or backward; -- now used only in opposition to the word to, in the phrase to and fro, that is, to and from. See To and fro under To.

(prep.) From.

(v. i.) To move in or pass thorugh the air with wings, as a bird.

(v. i.) To move through the air or before the wind; esp., to pass or be driven rapidly through the air by any impulse.

(v. i.) To float, wave, or rise in the air, as sparks or a flag.

(v. i.) To move or pass swiftly; to hasten away; to circulate rapidly; as, a ship flies on the deep; a top flies around; rumor flies.

(v. i.) To run from danger; to attempt to escape; to flee; as, an enemy or a coward flies. See Note under Flee.

(v. i.) To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly; -- usually with a qualifying word; as, a door flies open; a bomb flies apart.

(v. t.) To cause to fly or to float in the air, as a bird, a kite, a flag, etc.

(v. t.) To fly or flee from; to shun; to avoid.

(v. t.) To hunt with a hawk.

(v. i.) Any winged insect; esp., one with transparent wings; as, the Spanish fly; firefly; gall fly; dragon fly.

(v. i.) Any dipterous insect; as, the house fly; flesh fly; black fly. See Diptera, and Illust. in Append.

(v. i.) A hook dressed in imitation of a fly, -- used for fishing.

(v. i.) A familiar spirit; a witch's attendant.

(v. i.) A parasite.

(v. i.) A kind of light carriage for rapid transit, plying for hire and usually drawn by one horse.

(v. i.) The length of an extended flag from its staff; sometimes, the length from the "union" to the extreme end.

(v. i.) The part of a vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.

(v. i.) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.

(v. i.) Two or more vanes set on a revolving axis, to act as a fanner, or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.

(v. i.) A heavy wheel, or cross arms with weights at the ends on a revolving axis, to regulate or equalize the motion of machinery by means of its inertia, where the power communicated, or the resistance to be overcome, is variable, as in the steam engine or the coining press. See Fly wheel (below).

(v. i.) The piece hinged to the needle, which holds the engaged loop in position while the needle is penetrating another loop; a latch.

(v. i.) The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.

(v. i.) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.

(v. i.) Formerly, the person who took the printed sheets from the press.

(v. i.) A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power to a power printing press for doing the same work.

(v. i.) The outer canvas of a tent with double top, usually drawn over the ridgepole, but so extended as to touch the roof of the tent at no other place.

(v. i.) One of the upper screens of a stage in a theater.

(v. i.) The fore flap of a bootee; also, a lap on trousers, overcoats, etc., to conceal a row of buttons.

(v. i.) A batted ball that flies to a considerable distance, usually high in the air; also, the flight of a ball so struck; as, it was caught on the fly.

(a.) Knowing; wide awake; fully understanding another's meaning.

(n.) A second growth of grass; aftergrass.

(n.) Dead or decaying grass remaining on land through the winter; -- called also foggage.

(v. t.) To pasture cattle on the fog, or aftergrass, of; to eat off the fog from.

(v. i.) To practice in a small or mean way; to pettifog.

(n.) Watery vapor condensed in the lower part of the atmosphere and disturbing its transparency. It differs from cloud only in being near the ground, and from mist in not approaching so nearly to fine rain. See Cloud.

(n.) A state of mental confusion.

(v. t.) To envelop, as with fog; to befog; to overcast; to darken; to obscure.

(v. i.) To show indistinctly or become indistinct, as the picture on a negative sometimes does in the process of development.

(interj.) An exclamation of abhorrence or contempt; poh; fle.

(a. & adv.) Far.

(n.) Alt. of Fubs

(v. t.) To put off by trickery; to cheat.

(v. i.) To play upon a fiddle.

(n.) Sport; merriment; frolicsome amusement.

(n.) A large ornamental letter used, esp. by the early printers, at the commencement of the chapters and other divisions of a book.

(n.) One whose ambition it is to gain admiration by showy dress; a coxcomb; an inferior dandy.

(n.) A free and gratuitous right to lands made to one for service to be performed by him; a tenure where the vassal, in place of military services, makes a return in grain or in money.

(superl.) Not many; small, limited, or confined in number; -- indicating a small portion of units or individuals constituing a whole; often, by ellipsis of a noun, a few people.

(n.) A square bar of wood or iron, used to support the topmast, being passed through a hole or mortise at its heel, and resting on the trestle trees.

(n.) A wooden or metal bar or pin, used to support or steady anything.

(n.) A pin of hard wood, tapering to a point, used to open the strands of a rope in splicing.

(n.) A block of wood used in mounting and dismounting heavy guns.

(interj.) An exclamation denoting contempt or dislike. See Fy.

(n.) A small fruit tree (Ficus Carica) with large leaves, known from the remotest antiquity. It was probably native from Syria westward to the Canary Islands.

(n.) The fruit of a fig tree, which is of round or oblong shape, and of various colors.

(n.) A small piece of tobacco.

(n.) The value of a fig, practically nothing; a fico; -- used in scorn or contempt.

(n.) To insult with a fico, or contemptuous motion. See Fico.

(n.) To put into the head of, as something useless o/ contemptible.

(n.) Figure; dress; array.

() imp. of Fall, v. i. Fell.

(a.) Fixed; solidified.

(v. t.) To make firm, stable, or fast; to set or place permanently; to fasten immovably; to establish; to implant; to secure; to make definite.

(v. t.) To hold steadily; to direct unwaveringly; to fasten, as the eye on an object, the attention on a speaker.

(v. t.) To transfix; to pierce.

(v. t.) To render (an impression) permanent by treating with such applications as will make it insensible to the action of light.

(v. t.) To put in order; to arrange; to dispose of; to adjust; to set to rights; to set or place in the manner desired or most suitable; hence, to repair; as, to fix the clothes; to fix the furniture of a room.

(v. t.) To line the hearth of (a puddling furnace) with fettling.

(v. i.) To become fixed; to settle or remain permanently; to cease from wandering; to rest.

(v. i.) To become firm, so as to resist volatilization; to cease to flow or be fluid; to congeal; to become hard and malleable, as a metallic substance.

(n.) A position of difficulty or embarassment; predicament; dilemma.

(n.) fettling.