Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A man or boy.
  • noun Informal A boyfriend.
  • noun A comrade or associate.
  • noun A person of equal rank, position, or background; a peer.
  • noun One of a pair; a mate.
  • noun A member of a learned society or professional organization.
  • noun A graduate student appointed to a position granting financial aid and providing for further study.
  • noun A physician who enters a training program in a medical specialty after completing residency, usually in a hospital or academic setting.
  • noun An incorporated senior member of certain colleges and universities.
  • noun A member of the governing body of certain colleges and universities.
  • noun Archaic A man or boy held in low regard.
  • adjective Being of the same kind, group, occupation, society, or locality; having in common certain characteristics or interests.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make one's fellow; companion with.
  • To suit with; pair with; match.
  • noun A companion; comrade; mate.
  • noun One of the same kind; one of like character or qualities; an equal; a peer or compeer.
  • noun One of a pair; one of two things mated or fitted to each other; a mate or match.
  • noun A masculine mate: applied to beasts.
  • noun In a particular sense, a boon companion; a pleasant, genial associate; a jovial comrade; a man of easy manners and lively disposition: often with the epithet good.
  • noun A person in general; an individual: generally used in friendly familiarity of a man, and sometimes humorously of a woman.
  • noun A man; a boy; one, in the sense of ‘a person’: in vulgar parlance, commonly applied by the speaker to himself: as, give a fellow a chance; don't be hard on a fellow.
  • noun A person of trivial or disreputable character; a man of no esteem: said in contempt.
  • noun In England, a graduate member of a college who shares its revenues. See fellowship, 5 .
  • noun A full member of an incorporated literary or scientific society.
  • noun In the United States:
  • noun One of the trustees or a member of the corporation of some colleges.
  • noun The name sometimes given to the holder of a fellowship.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To suit with; to pair with; to match.
  • noun A companion; a comrade; an associate; a partner; a sharer.
  • noun A man without good breeding or worth; an ignoble or mean man.
  • noun An equal in power, rank, character, etc.
  • noun One of a pair, or of two things used together or suited to each other; a mate; the male.
  • noun A person; an individual.
  • noun In the English universities, a scholar who is appointed to a foundation called a fellowship, which gives a title to certain perquisites and privileges.
  • noun In an American college or university, a member of the corporation which manages its business interests; also, a graduate appointed to a fellowship, who receives the income of the foundation.
  • noun A member of a literary or scientific society.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A colleague or partner.
  • noun archaic A companion; a comrade.
  • noun A man without good breeding or worth; an ignoble or mean man.
  • noun An equal in power, rank, character, etc.
  • noun One of a pair, or of two things used together or suited to each other; a mate.
  • noun colloquial A male person; a man.
  • noun In the English universities, a scholar who is appointed to a foundation called a fellowship, which gives a title to certain perquisites and privileges.
  • noun In an American college or university, a member of the corporation which manages its business interests; also, a graduate appointed to a fellowship, who receives the income of the foundation.
  • noun A member of a literary or scientific society; as, a Fellow of the Royal Society.
  • noun The most senior rank or title one can achieve on a technical career in certain companies (though some fellows also hold business titles such as vice president or chief technology officer). This is typically found in large corporations in research and development-intensive industries (IBM or Sun Microsystems in information technology, and Boston Scientific in Medical Devices for example). They appoint a small number of senior scientists and engineers as Fellows.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English felau, from Old English fēolaga, from Old Norse fēlagi, business partner, fellow, from fēlag, partnership : , property, money; see peku- in Indo-European roots + lag, a laying down; see legh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old Norse fēlagi, from the Germanic bases of two words represented in English by fee and lay.

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Examples

Comments

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  • You and I together—

    Was it so?

    In the August weather

    Long ago!

    Did we kiss and fellow,

    Side by side,

    Till the sunbeams quickened

    From our stalks great yellow

    Sunflowers, till we sickened

    There and died?

    - Richard Hovey, 'Launa Dee'.

    September 16, 2009

  • "The name sometimes given to the holder of a fellowship. (Used in composition, fellow denotes community in nature, station, interest, or employment, or mutual association on equal or friendly terms: as, fellow-boarder, fellow-clerk, fellow-guest, fellow-passenger, fellow-pilgrim, fellow-prisoner, fellow-servant, fellow-sinner, fellow-student, fellow-sufferer, fellow-townsman, fellow-traveler, fellow-worker. For other examples, see below.)" --CD&C

    April 13, 2012