All this time, they were chattering; but at last I thought, by the sound of their voices, that they must be walking away, and I never was in such a feeze in all my life, in case they should be gone before I could get up the wall ; and when I did get up it, sure enough, gone they was!1797, Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette, page 203:
“Don't git in a feeze, uncle Tib;—you can't help your head, I dare say;[…]”1825, John Neal, Brother Jonathan: or, The New Englanders, volume 2, page 85:
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[Crispin buys a lottery ticket and splashes out in anticipation of winning.] The next morning Violetta [his daughter] was paraded through the streets by a smart clerk in the neighbourhood[…]At the turn of the next street they met Crispin himself, with a visage of alarming length. He was fresh from the office, where they told him he had drawn a—blank!—The smart beau sneaked off in a feeze, Crispin and his goods were sold out by the sheriff[…]1828 April 19, “For the Ariel”, in The Ariel, page 205:
Why what a feeze you air in, to be sure!2006, John Neal, Down Easters, page 134:
2
US, Dialectal A rush, impetus, or a violent impact; also, a rub.
Also fetch one's feeze
[…]though you haue fetched your feaze, yet to looke well ere you leape.1577, Raphael Holinshed, quoting James Butler, “The thirde Booke of the Historie of Ireland, comprising the raigne of Henry the eyght”, in The firste [laste] volume of the chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, page 91:
Dabscote no harme receiued by his fall But lightly vp himselfe againe doth rease, Fiue Almains streight they light vpon him all At once: and beare him downe with mightie feas.1592, William Wyrley, “Life of Lord Chandos”, in The true use of armorie shewed by historie, page 50:
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This tale being bleated out and heard, this cornuted husband of the sheep's heads fetching a feeze backward (like the Roman ram, to push forward with the more violent and villainous force) ran with all his horniferous strength at the poor fire-felon and stroke his brow-butters full in Prometheus's forehead that the very print remaineth in his front, and doth still in some of his race to this day;1618, Thomas Middleton, The Owles Almanacke:
[…]as hee that leapeth forward fetcheth his feeze a great way backe[…]1636, Daniel Featley, chapter 62, in Clavis mystica: a key opening divers difficult and mysterious texts of Holy Scripture, page 826:
Our Man of Art[…]finds some words which will not at all serve is turn[…]viz. (An excellent Conserver of Liberty, but never intended for any share in Government, or the choosing of them that should govern)[…]and therefore well bethinks himself, retires a little, begins at An excellent Conserver of Liberty, makes that plural, adds, &c. which is not in the Original, fetches his feeze and leaps quite over all the rest of the Parenthesis[…]1686, Fabian Phillips, chapter 27, in Investigatio jurium antiquorum et rationalium Regni […] or, a vindication of the government of the kingdom of England […] , page 583:
Then Lizzie wad coax her, as I've heard her tell, Wi' a lick o' sweet oil an' a feeze o' her hand, She soon brought the dorty jaud back to hersel'.1878, Mather, “My Auld Aunty Lizzie Was Famed for a Spinner”, in Whistle-Binkie: Or, the Piper of the Party:
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Scotland, Obsolete A device for wedging items into a tight space.
setting up the most expedient agricolary instruments of wains, carts, slades, with their several devices of wheels and axle-trees, plows and harrows of divers sorts, feezes, winders, pullies, and all other manner of engines fit for easing the toyl and furthering the work;1653, Sir Thomas Urquhart, Logopandecteision:
The Dean and assessors —unanimoslie condishended and agreied upon that ane compitent number of feezes be made for packing of pleding.1674, Proceedings: The Guildry Incorporation of Dundee:
feeze
verb
Etymology From Middle English fesen, from Old English fēsian, fȳsian (“to drive away, put to flight”), variants of fēsan, fȳsan (“to hasten, rush; to incite, stimulate, send forth, drive away”), of disputed origin. Doublet of faze.
1
Dialectal, Obsolete, Often, With about To drive off or away; to make (someone) run, put to flight; to frighten away; compare faze.
Also feeze away
Gracious! what a hurly-burly 'twas! How the volks veased [gloss: Hurried, drove] out o' church—higgeldy piggeldy, helter skelter: zich jitting, [gloss: Pushing against each other], driving, and dringing. [gloss: Squeezing]1839, Mary Palmer, edited by Theophila Gwatkin, A Devonshire Dialogue, page 15:
A Vriday I went to winding [gloss: Winnowing], and took the Boy wi' me, to cry turr, [gloss: An expression used in driving pigs], and vease away the pigs from nuzzling in the corn[…]1839, Mary Palmer, edited by Theophila Gwatkin, A Devonshire Dialogue, page 30:
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but you Republicans are so much accustomed to this uncertainty upon many other questions that it need not feeze you at all.1906, Congressional Record, page 4351:
But the crows and squirrels and various birds called his attention from his work at about every second stroke of the hoe, and the questions I had to answer would have feezed Agassiz.1910, The World To-day: A Monthly Record of Human Progress, page 552:
That of itself set gossip flying, for Whitcroft, as he had said, was a talky place: but Dave knew and approved, so the evil hints with the tongue in the cheek never feesed me.1913, Hamilton Drummond, Winds of God, page 78:
[…] but as any old fighter will tell you there is nothing more discouraging than to discover that your most effective blows do not feeze your opponent, […]1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:
Come, will you quarrel? I will feeze you, sirrah.1610, Ben Johnson, The Alchemist:
[The characters are fighting.] Well: [He] has given me my Quietus est; I felt him In my small guts, I'm sure [he] has feez'd me: This comes of siding with you.1617, John Fletcher, “The Chances”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
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An he proud with me, I'll feeze his pride.1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida:
He had not been squelched. he had not been feased by the feigned rebuke of the Hon. John Masterson McInnery.1916 February, Jim Blythe, "The Corn-Cob Club", Public Service Magazine 20, H. J. Gonden, Chicago, page 48
At last in desperation the excited man fed the bird a strychnine pill. It ate it ev'ry bit, it feezed it not a whit, and the appetite was keener still.1903, George Ade, The Sultan of Sulu: An Original Satire in Two Acts, page 8:
When stormy winter shook the trees, An' drumly dubs began to freeze, An' Christmas times brought bread an' cheese, An' routh o' whisky, Auld Carlo then his tail would feeze Sae keen an' frisky.1845, Alexander Smart, “Poor Carlo's elegy”, in Rambling rhymes, page 237:
4
Dialectal To swing about in the wind; to flare (as a candle)
Not that mothers should neglect children for husband, but that they might be quite as well off with less of your feezing and fussing, and he much the better with more of your affections.1859, Orson Squire Fowler, Matrimony: As Taught by Phrenology and Physiology, page 417:
he just did an honest day's work, each day, without worrying and "feezing" about the winter.1900, Washington News Letter, page 698:
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“There now,” admonished Lane, “don't you begirt tapping your foot, Mrs. Howland. You'll get all feezed up if you don't hold on to yourself.”1923, Carolyn Wells, Wheels within Wheels:
Etymology From Scots feeze, from Old Scots fize (“screw”, noun), from Dutch vijs (“screw”), from Middle Dutch vise (“screw, windlass, winch”), from Old French vis, viz (“vise, vice”), from Latin vītis (“vine”). Doublet of vice, vise, and withe.
1
Scotland, Also, Dialectal, With off To twist or turn with a screw-like motion; to screw.
What pushing and crushing Amang the lads and lasses; What squeezing and feezing Wi' ilka ane that passes1825, James Bissett, An Attempt to delineate Ceres Fair:
For forty years—like Rob the Ranter, I've feezed about my rhymin' chanter' Blawn up the bag, and cock'd my bonnet, And tried to "croon an ault Scots sonnet,"1845, Charles Gray, A familiar epistle addressed to P. M'Leod, etc., page 4:
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The superintendent stated that he had tried it, or examined it, the day before and could not budge or feeze it.1904, Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme court of the state of Kansas, page 511:
Scotland, Dialectal To untwist; to unravel, as the end of a thread or rope.
In short, Tibbie made maist praiseworthy efforts to feeze her fingers oot o' my loof as lang as I held them fast.1864, William Duncan Latto, Tammas Bodkin: Or, The Humours of a Scottish Tailor, page 270:
The thread that joins us baith will sune Feeze oot and snap in twa!1875, Peter Whytock, The Skein O' 'Oo:
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I can't feeze it out among these strange entanglements of circumstance and personalities.2014, David L. Birdsall, “The Moon Past Noon”, in 4 Ergomont plays, page 277:
“How does the snow come;" he asks. “Mama says God makes it snow. Does he keep it up there, and all the rain, too. I s'd t'ink he'd feeze. Mama al'as says, come in Willie, you'll feeze in 'e snow."1881 March 2, Cora Coral, “A New Year's Story”, in Fountain of Light: A Weekly Journal Devoted to Light Seekers, volume 1, number 21, page 325:
“Fine weather for feezing! fine weather for feezing! answered the latter, with a mocking look which Sylvandire caught, and which frightened her.1897, Alexandre Dumas, Sylvandire. The woman with the velvet necklace, page 366:
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When we walked—I carried Linda and held Carol's hand—Carol would whisper to herself over and over, “Going to feeze to deff, going to feeze to deff.”2009, Lois Schillie Eikleberry, One 20th Century Woman: The Life and Times of a Distaff Doctor: