fell
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɛl/
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: fells
form: felling
form: felled
form: felled
Etymology: From Middle English fellen, from Old English fellan, fiellan (“to cause to fall, strike down, fell, cut down, throw down, defeat, destroy, kill, tumble, cause to stumble”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallijan, from Proto-Germanic *fallijaną (“to fell, to cause to fall”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂peh₃lH-.
Cognate with Dutch vellen (“to fell, cut down”), German fällen (“to fell”), Danish fælde (“to fell”), Norwegian felle (“to fell”).
Senses: examples: text: Stand, or I'll fell thee down.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
text: Sinclair opened Swansea's account from the spot on 8 minutes after a Ryan Shawcross tackle had felled Wayne Routledge.
ref: 2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales:
text: As southeast Asia's forests were felled, the rhino's habitat shrank and became fragmented.
ref: 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 219:
glosses: To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Chessmen of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2010:
text: "Even in his most temperate moments he is constantly felling people with a hunting-crop."
ref: 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 19:
text: … could make Ferré the first major fashion label felled by the economic crisis to come out the other end of restructuring.
ref: 2010 September 27, Christina Passariello, “Prodos Capital, Samsung Make Final Cut for Ferré”, in Wall Street Journal, retrieved 26 Aug 2012:
text: 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.
ref: 2016 January 17, “What Weiner Reveals About Huma Abedin”, in Vanity Fair, retrieved 21 Jan 2016:
glosses: To strike down, kill, destroy.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2006, Colette Wolff, The Art of Manipulating Fabric, page 296:
topics: business
manufacturing
sewing
textiles
glosses: To stitch down a protruding flap of fabric, as a seam allowance, or pleat.
Derived terms: fellage
little strokes fell great oaks
overfell
unfelled