Definitions

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

  • noun A fabric of matted, compressed animal fibers, such as wool or fur, sometimes mixed with vegetable or synthetic fibers.
  • noun A material resembling this fabric.
  • noun Something made of this fabric.
  • adjective Made of, relating to, or resembling felt.
  • intransitive verb To make into felt.
  • intransitive verb To cover with felt.
  • intransitive verb To press or mat (something) together.
  • intransitive verb To become like felt; mat together.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Preterit and past participle of feel.
  • noun An unwoven fabric of short hair or wool, or of wool and fur, agglutinated or matted together, with the aid usually of moisture and heat, by rolling, beating, and pressure.
  • noun A piece of this material; some article of wearing-apparel made of it; specifically, a hat made of felted wool.
  • noun A thick matted growth of weeds, spreading by their roots.
  • noun Fell; skin.
  • noun A fabric made of hair, or asbestos and hair, sometimes saturated with a lime cement, used on steam-pipes and -boilers as a non-conducting covering.
  • noun A compound of liquid cement and animal or vegetable fiber, applied with a brush for the same purpose.
  • To mat (fibers) together, as in the manufacture of felt; make into felt or something resembling felt.
  • To cover with felt, as the cylinder of a steamengine.
  • To become felted; mat together.

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

  • transitive verb To make into felt, or a feltike substance; to cause to adhere and mat together.
  • transitive verb To cover with, or as with, felt.
  • imp. & p. p. or a. from feel.
  • noun A cloth or stuff made of matted fibers of wool, or wool and fur, fulled or wrought into a compact substance by rolling and pressure, with lees or size, without spinning or weaving.
  • noun A hat made of felt.
  • noun obsolete A skin or hide; a fell; a pelt.
  • noun the grain of timber which is transverse to the annular rings or plates; the direction of the medullary rays in oak and some other timber.

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

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of feel.
  • adjective That has been experienced or perceived.
  • noun A cloth or stuff made of matted fibres of wool, or wool and fur, fulled or wrought into a compact substance by rolling and pressure, with lees or size, without spinning or weaving.
  • noun A hat made of felt.
  • noun obsolete A skin or hide; a fell; a pelt.
  • verb transitive To make into felt, or a feltlike substance; to cause to adhere and mat together.
  • verb transitive To cover with, or as if with, felt.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb mat together and make felt-like
  • verb change texture so as to become matted and felt-like
  • verb cover with felt
  • noun a fabric made of compressed matted animal fibers

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English; see pel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English fēled, corresponding to feel +‎ -ed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English felt, from Proto-Germanic *feltaz (compare Dutch vilt, German Filz, Danish filt), from Proto-Indo-European *pilto, *pilso 'felt' (compare Latin pilleus ("felt") (adj.), Old Church Slavonic plŭstĭ, Albanian plis, Ancient Greek πῖλος (pilos)), from *pel- 'to beat'. More at anvil.

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Examples

  • Yet again and again she felt constrained to make her simple supplication, pleading earnestly for her baby's life with the God the reality of whose being and power she now _felt_, spite of herself.

    True to his Colours The Life that Wears Best Theodore P. Wilson

  • You must have felt that even the formula of the Church of Rome would be a blessed power to exercise, could it but once be accepted as a pledge that all the past was obliterated, and that from that moment a free untainted future lay before the soul -- you must have _felt_ that; you must have wished you had dared to

    Sermons Preached at Brighton Third Series Frederick W. Robertson

  • He did not look up, but he felt, he just _felt_, all the eyes of all the little meadow people and forest folk burning right into him.

    Mother West Wind's Children 1919

  • He had felt the menace, known that it existed, and the slogan ringing always in his ears, the Whispered "Death to the Gray Seal" had taken on a deeper significance, had brought him a more acute and imminent sense of peril than ever before; but it was only last night, for the first time, that he had equally _felt_ that he had had any concrete knowledge of, or contact with this new antagonist.

    The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale 1909

  • She felt his black heart constantly throwing its shadow on to her own; she _felt_ this, but could not give to others, nor perhaps even to herself, what might be deemed a satisfactory reason for her impressions and forebodings; for in her was exemplified the words of the poet:

    Gaut Gurley D. P. Thompson 1831

  • Tyler finally admitted to me that he has been lying to me and alas, doesn’t love me at all, but only said it because he felt it would make things better and because it’s how he “wishes” he felt…

    goldylockz22 Diary Entry goldylockz22 2004

  • And yet -- it may seem strange to you -- but I've felt all along -- I've _felt_ -- that something like this might probably happen any time. "

    V. V.'s Eyes Henry Sydnor Harrison 1905

  • When they laughed I laughed, and we bowed and shook hands, and they turned me round and felt me all over, and _felt my hands_. "

    Miscellanea Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing 1863

  • It was basically an attempt at getting a song that the label felt good about that would be able to be played on the radio.

    Mike Ragogna: An Artist With His "Eye On The Prize": A Conversation With Marc Broussard Mike Ragogna 2011

  • It was basically an attempt at getting a song that the label felt good about that would be able to be played on the radio.

    Mike Ragogna: An Artist With His "Eye On The Prize": A Conversation With Marc Broussard Mike Ragogna 2011

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