Contextualizebeta

feague

verb
/fiːɡ/UK

Etymology

From Dutch vegen (“to sweep, strike”), from Middle Dutch vēghen (“to cleanse”), from Old Dutch *fegōn (“to cleanse”), from Proto-West Germanic *faginōn, from Proto-Germanic *faginōną (“to decorate, make beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *pōḱ-, *pēḱ- (“to clean, to adorn”). Cognate with Danish feje (“to sweep”), German fegen (“to cleanse, scour, sweep”), Icelandic fægja (“to polish”), Swedish feja (“to sweep”). More at fay, fair, fake.

  1. derived from *pōḱ-✻
  2. derived from *faginōną✻
  3. derived from *faginōn✻
  4. derived from *fegōn✻
  5. derived from vēghen
  6. borrowed from vegen

Definitions

  1. To increase the liveliness of a horse by inserting an irritant, such as a piece of peeled…

    To increase the liveliness of a horse by inserting an irritant, such as a piece of peeled raw ginger or a live eel, in its anus.

    • Run along to Hobson's Livery Stable and tell them I want a good fast horse, right? Something with a bit of fizz in its blood! Not some feagued-up old screw, and I know the difference! I want it here in half an hour! Off you go!

  2. To beat or whip

    To beat or whip; to drive.

    • Dol[l]. (aside). Oh, if I wist this old priest would not sticke to me, by Ioue, I would ingle this old seruing-man. / Harp[oole]. Oh you old mad colt! yfaith, Ile feak you! fil all the pots in the house there.
    • Beau[gard]. Hark ye, ye curs, keep off from snapping at my heels, or I shall so feague ye.

  3. To subject to some harmful scheme

    To subject to some harmful scheme; to ‘do in’.

  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. To have sexual intercourse with.

      • Come, brother Cockwood, let us get 'em / To lay aſide theſe masking Fopperies, and then / We'll fegue 'em in earneſt: Give us a bottle, Waiter.
      • Chor[us]. […] See, yonder ſits Well-born with his pretty Wife. / […] Shee ſeeks for her Gallant, and he o'my Life / Hath a mind to be feaguing yon Vizor-Mask-Whore.

    2. An unkempt, slatternly person.

      • So Jack enters: / And trips up staires, as quick, as come penny, / Where we find, what's before good company! / Three female idle feaks, who long'd for pigs head.
      • Feague (also feak, q.v.) as a noun, was used of a slattern, a sluttish woman.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for feague. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA