fist
//fɪst//
Forms
- Plural
- fists
- present (v1)
- fist
- past (v2)
- fisted
- past participle (v3)
- fisted
- present participle
- fisting
- 3rd person singular
- fists
Definitions
1.A hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward.
- The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.
2.Synonym of manicule.
3.The characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code.
4.A person's characteristic handwriting.(slang)
1.To stomp, to utterly defeat
2.To strike with the fist.
3.To close (the hand) into a fist.
- He noticed Ada's trick of hiding her fingernails by fisting her hand or stretching it with the palm turned upward when helping herself to a biscuit.
4.To grip with a fist.
- I am an officer; but, how I wish I could fist a bit of old-fashioned beef in the fore-castle, as I used to when I was before the mast.
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4280
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English fist, from Old English fȳst (“fist”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūsti (“fist”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to punch; to prick, stab”).
Cognates