English Synonyms and Antonyms — Faint to Fetter

Synonyms: dim, fatigued, irresolute, weak, exhausted, feeble, languid, wearied, faded, half-hearted, listless, worn, faint-hearted, ill-defined, purposeless, worn down, faltering, indistinct, timid, worn out.

_Faint_, with the general sense of lacking strength or effectiveness, covers a wide range of meaning, signifying overcome with physical weakness or exhaustion, or lacking in purpose, courage, or energy, as said of persons; or lacking definiteness or distinctness of color or sound, as said of written characters, voices, or musical notes.

A person may be _faint_ when physically _wearied_, or when overcome with fear; he may be a _faint_ adherent because naturally _feeble_ or _purposeless_, or because _half-hearted_ in the cause; he may be a _faltering_ supporter because naturally _irresolute_ or because _faint-hearted_ and _timid_ in view of perils that threaten, a _listless_ worker, through want of mental energy and purpose.

Written characters may be _faint_ or _dim_, either because originally written with poor ink, or because they have become _faded_ by time and exposure.

Antonyms: bright, clear, daring, fresh, resolute, sturdy, brilliant, conspicuous, energetic, hearty, strong, vigorous.

Prepositions: Faint _with_ hunger; faint _in_ color.

* * * * * FAITH.

Synonyms: assent, confidence, credit, opinion, assurance, conviction, creed, reliance, belief, credence, doctrine, trust.

_Belief_, as an intellectual process, is the acceptance of some thing as true on other grounds than personal observation and experience.

We give _credence_ to a report, _assent_ to a proposition or to a proposal.

_Belief_ is stronger than _credence_; _credence_ might be described as a prima facie _belief_; _credence_ is a more formal word than _belief_, and seems to imply somewhat more of volition; we speak of giving _credence_ to a report, but not of giving _belief_.

Goods are sold on _credit_; we give one _credit_ for good intentions.

_Conviction_ is a _belief_ established by argument or evidence; _assurance_ is _belief_ beyond the reach of argument; as, the Christian's _assurance_ of salvation.

An _opinion_ is a general conclusion held as probable, tho without full certainty; a _persuasion_ is a more confident _opinion_, involving the heart as well as the intellect.

In religion, a _doctrine_ is a statement of _belief_ regarding a single point; a _creed_ is a summary statement of _doctrines_.

_Confidence_ is a firm dependence upon a statement as true, or upon a person as worthy.

_Reliance_ is _confidence_ on which we act or are ready to act unquestioningly; we have a calm _reliance_ upon the uniformity of nature.

_Trust_ is a practical and tranquil resting of the mind upon the integrity, kindness, friendship, or promises of a person; we have _trust_ in God.

_Faith_ is a union of _belief_ and _trust_.

_Faith_ is chiefly personal; _belief_ may be quite impersonal; we speak of _belief_ of a proposition, _faith_ in a promise, because the promise emanates from a person.

But _belief_ in a person is often used with no appreciable difference from _faith_.

In religion it is common to distinguish between intellectual _belief_ of religious truth, as any other truth might be believed, and _belief_ of the heart, or saving _faith_.

Antonyms: denial, dissent, doubt, infidelity, rejection, suspicion, disbelief, distrust, incredulity, misgiving, skepticism, unbelief.

Prepositions: Have faith _in_ God; the faith _of_ the gospel.

* * * * * FAITHFUL.

Synonyms: devoted, incorruptible, stanch, true, trusty, firm, loyal, sure, trustworthy, unwavering.

A person is _faithful_ who will keep faith, whether with or without power to aid or serve; a person or thing is _trusty_ that possesses such qualities as to justify the fullest confidence and dependence.

We may speak of a _faithful_ but feeble friend; we say a _trusty_ agent, a _trusty_ steed, a _trusty_ sword.

Antonyms: capricious, false, unfaithful, untrustworthy, faithless, fickle, untrue, wavering.

Prepositions: Faithful _in_ service; _to_ duty; _to_ comrade or commander; faithful _among_ the faithless.

* * * * * FAME.

Synonyms: celebrity, eminence, honor, notoriety, reputation, credit, glory, laurels, renown, repute.

distinction, _Fame_ is the widely disseminated report of a person's character, deeds, or abilities, and is oftenest used in the favorable sense.

_Reputation_ and _repute_ are more limited than _fame_, and may be either good or bad.

_Notoriety_ is evil _repute_ or a dishonorable counterfeit of _fame_.

_Eminence_ and _distinction_ may result from rank, station, or character.

_Celebrity_ is limited in range; we speak of local _celebrity_, or world-wide _fame_.

_Fame_ in its best sense may be defined as the applause of numbers; _renown_, as such applause worthily won; we speak of the conqueror's _fame_, the patriot's _renown_.

_Glory_ and _honor_ are of good import; _honor_ may be given for qualities or acts that should not win it, but it is always given as something good and worthy; we can speak of an evil _fame_, but not of evil _honor_;

_glory_ has a more exalted and often a sacred sense.

Antonyms: contempt, discredit, dishonor, humiliation, infamy, obscurity, contumely, disgrace, disrepute, ignominy, oblivion, shame.

* * * * * FANATICISM.

Synonyms: bigotry, credulity, intolerance, superstition.

_Fanaticism_ is extravagant or even frenzied zeal; _bigotry_ is obstinate and unreasoning attachment to a cause or creed; _fanaticism_ and _bigotry_ usually include _intolerance_, which is unwillingness to tolerate beliefs or opinions contrary to one's own; _superstition_ is ignorant and irrational religious belief.

_Credulity_ is not distinctively religious, but is a general readiness to believe without sufficient evidence, with a proneness to accept the marvellous.

_Bigotry_ is narrow, _fanaticism_ is fierce, _superstition_ is ignorant, _credulity_ is weak, _intolerance_ is severe.

_Bigotry_ has not the capacity to reason fairly, _fanaticism_ has not the patience, _superstition_ has not the knowledge and mental discipline, _intolerance_ has not the disposition.

_Bigotry_, _fanaticism_, and _superstition_ are perversions of the religious sentiment; _credulity_ and _intolerance_ often accompany skepticism or atheism.

Antonyms: cynicism, free-thinking, indifference, latitudinarianism.

* * * * * FANCIFUL.

Synonyms: chimerical, fantastic, grotesque, imaginative, visionary.

That is _fanciful_ which is dictated or suggested by fancy independently of more serious considerations; the _fantastic_ is the _fanciful_ with the added elements of whimsicalness and extravagance.

The _fanciful_ swings away from the real or the ordinary lightly and pleasantly, the _fantastic_ extravagantly, the _grotesque_ ridiculously.

A _fanciful_ arrangement of objects is commonly pleasing, a _fantastic_ arrangement is striking, a _grotesque_ arrangement is laughable.

A _fanciful_ theory or suggestion may be clearly recognized as such; a _visionary_ scheme is erroneously supposed to have a basis in fact.

Compare synonyms for DREAM; IDEA; IMAGINATION.

Antonyms: accurate, commonplace, prosaic, regular, sound, calculable, literal, real, sensible, sure, calculated, ordinary, reasonable, solid, true.

* * * * * FANCY.

Synonyms: belief, desire, imagination, predilection, caprice, humor, inclination, supposition, conceit, idea, liking, vagary, conception, image, mood, whim.

An intellectual _fancy_ is a mental _image_ or picture founded upon slight or whimsical association or resemblance; a _conceit_ has less of the picturesque and more of the theoretic than a _fancy_; a _conceit_ is somewhat aside from the common laws of reasoning, as a _fancy_ is lighter and more airy than the common mode of thought.

A _conceit_ or _fancy_ may be wholly unfounded, while a _conception_ always has, or is believed to have, some answering reality.

(Compare REASON.

) An intellectual _fancy_ or _conceit_ may be pleasing or amusing, but is never worth serious discussion; we speak of a mere _fancy_, a droll or odd _conceit_.

An emotional or personal _fancy_ is a capricious _liking_ formed with slight reason and no exercise of judgment, and liable to fade as lightly as it was formed.

In a broader sense, the _fancy_ signifies the faculty by which _fancies_ or mental images are formed, associated, or combined.

Compare synonyms for DREAM; IDEA; IMAGINATION.

Antonyms: actuality, certainty, fact, reality, truth, verity.

Prepositions: To have a fancy _for_ or take a fancy _to_ a person or thing.

* * * * * FAREWELL.

Synonyms: adieu, good-by, parting salutation, valedictory.

congé, leave-taking, valediction, _Good-by_ is the homely and hearty, _farewell_ the formal English word at parting.

_Adieu_, from the French, is still more ceremonious than _farewell_; _congé_, also from the French, is commonly contemptuous or supercilious, and equivalent to dismissal.

_Valediction_ is a learned word never in popular use.

A _valedictory_ is a public farewell to a company or assembly.

Prepositions: I bade farewell _to_ my comrades, or (without preposition) I bade my comrades farewell; I took a sad farewell _of_ my friends.

* * * * * FEAR.

Synonyms: affright, dismay, horror, timidity, apprehension, disquietude, misgiving, trembling, awe, dread, panic, tremor, consternation, fright, terror, trepidation.

_Fear_ is the generic term denoting an emotion excited by threatening evil with a desire to avoid or escape it; _fear_ may be sudden or lingering, in view of present, of imminent, or of distant and only possible danger; in the latter sense _dread_ is oftener used.

_Horror_ (etymologically a shivering or shuddering) denotes a shuddering _fear_ accompanied with abhorrence or such a shock to the feelings and sensibilities as may exist without _fear_, as when one suddenly encounters some ghastly spectacle; we say of a desperate but fettered criminal, "I looked upon him with _horror_."

Where _horror_ includes _fear_, it is _fear_ mingled with abhorrence.

(See ABHOR.

) _Affright_, _fright_, and _terror_ are always sudden, and in actual presence of that which is terrible.

_Fear_ may overwhelm, or may nerve one to desperate defense; _fright_ and _terror_ render one incapable of defense; _fear_ may be controlled by force of will; _fright_ and _terror_ overwhelm the will; _terror_ paralyzes, _fright_ may cause one to fly, to scream, or to swoon.

_Fright_ is largely a matter of the nerves; _fear_ of the intellect and the imagination; _terror_ of all the faculties, bodily and mental.

_Panic_ is a sudden _fear_ or _fright_, affecting numbers at once; vast armies or crowded audiences are liable to _panic_ upon slight occasion.

In a like sense we speak of a financial _panic_.

_Dismay_ is a helpless sinking of heart in view of some overwhelming peril or sorrow.

_Dismay_ is more reflective, enduring, and despairing than _fright_; a horse is subject to _fright_ or _terror_, but not to _dismay_.

_Awe_ is a reverential _fear_.

Compare ALARM.

Antonyms: See synonyms for FORTITUDE.

* * * * * FEMININE.

Synonyms: effeminate, female, womanish, womanly.

We apply _female_ to the sex, _feminine_ to the qualities, especially the finer physical or mental qualities that distinguish the _female_ sex in the human family, or to the objects appropriate for or especially employed by them.

A _female_ voice is the voice of a woman; a _feminine_ voice may belong to a man.

_Womanish_ denotes the undesirable, _womanly_ the admirable or lovely qualities of woman.

_Womanly_ tears would suggest respect and sympathy, _womanish_ tears a touch of contempt.

The word _effeminate_ is always used reproachfully, and only of men as possessing _womanly_ traits such as are inconsistent with true manliness.

Antonyms: See synonyms for MASCULINE.

* * * * * FETTER.

Synonyms: bondage, custody, gyves, irons, bonds, durance, handcuffs, manacles, chains, duress, imprisonment, shackles.

_Bonds_ may be of cord, leather, or any other substance that can bind;

_chains_ are of linked metal.

_Manacles_ and _handcuffs_ are for the hands, _fetters_ are primarily chains or jointed iron fastenings for the feet; _gyves_ may be for either.

A _shackle_ is a metallic ring, clasp, or bracelet-like fastening for encircling and restraining a limb: commonly one of a pair, used either for hands or feet.

_Bonds_, _fetters_, and _chains_ are used in a general way for almost any form of restraint.

_Gyves_ is now wholly poetic, and the other words are mostly restricted to the literary style; _handcuffs_ is the specific and _irons_ the general term in popular usage; as, the prisoner was put in _irons_.

_Bonds_, _chains_, and _shackles_ are frequently used in the metaphorical sense.

* * * * * FEUD.

Synonyms: