different between feel vs fathom

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi?l/, [fi??]
• Rhymes: -i?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English felen, from Old English f?lan (“to feel, perceive, touch”), from Proto-West Germanic *f?lijan (“to feel”).

Verb

feel (third-person singular simple present feels, present participle feeling, simple past and past participle felt)

1. (heading) To use or experience the sense of touch.
   1. (transitive, copulative) To become aware of through the skin; to use the sense of touch on.

   2. (transitive) To find one's way (literally or figuratively) by touching or using cautious movements.

   3. (intransitive) To receive information by touch or by any neurons other than those responsible for sight, smell, taste, or hearing.
   4. (intransitive) To search by sense of touch.

2. (heading) To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.
   1. (transitive) To experience an emotion or other mental state about.
      • Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile?; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
   2. (transitive) To think, believe, or have an impression concerning.
   3. (intransitive, copulative) To experience an emotion or other mental state.
   4. (intransitive) To sympathise; to have the sensibilities moved or affected.
      • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

        [She] feels with the dignity of a Roman matron.

      • 1738, Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires

        who feel for all mankind

3. (transitive) To be or become aware of.
4. (transitive) To experience the consequences of.

5. (copulative) To seem (through touch or otherwise).

6. (transitive, US, slang) To understand.

Usage notes

• When referring to the emotional state, most prescriptive grammarians prefer "I feel bad" to "I feel badly", but "I feel badly" is widely used this way in US English.
• Adjectives to which "feel" is often applied as a copula: free, cold, cool, warm, hot, young, old, good, great, fine, happy, glad, satisfied, excited, bad, depressed, unhappy, sad, blue, sorry, smart, stupid, loved, appreciated, accepted, rejected, lonely, isolated, insulted, offended, slighted, cheated, shy, refreshed, tired, exhausted, calm, relaxed, angry, annoyed, frustrated, anxious, worried, jealous, proud, confident, safe, grateful, uncomfortable, unsafe, insecure, desperate, guilty, ashamed, disappointed, dirty, odd, strange, ill, sick.
• In senses 2,3, and 5, this is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs
• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb feel had the form feelest, and had feltest for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form feeleth was used.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

feel (plural feels)

1. A quality of an object experienced by touch.

   Bark has a rough feel.

2. A vague mental impression.

   You should get a feel of the area before moving in.

3. An act of fondling.

   She gave me a quick feel to show that she loves me.

4. A vague understanding.

   I'm getting a feel for what you mean.

5. An intuitive ability.

   She has a feel for music.

6. (chiefly US, slang) Alternative form of feeling.

   I know that feel.

Derived terms

• cop a feel
• get a feel for
• mouthfeel

Translations

Etymology 2

See fele.

Pronoun

feel

1. (dialectal or obsolete) Alternative form of fele

Adjective

feel (not comparable)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) Alternative form of fele

Adverb

feel (not comparable)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) Alternative form of fele

References

Anagrams

• elfe, fele, flee, leef

North Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian f?la.

Verb

feel

1. (Föhr-Amrum) to feel

Old Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin fid?lem (“faithful”). Replaced by the borrowing fidel in modern Catalan.

Adjective

feel

1. faithful

Seri

Noun

feel (plural feeloj)

1. mallard, Anas platyrhynchos

English

Etymology

From Middle English fathome, fadome, from Old English fæþm, fæþme (“outstretched or encircling arms, embrace, grasp, protection, interior, bosom, lap, breast, womb, fathom, cubit, power, expanse, surface”), from Proto-Germanic *faþmaz (“embrace”), from Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to spread out, extend”). Cognate with Low German fadem, faem (“a cubit, thread”), Dutch vadem, vaam (“fathom”), German Faden (“thread, filament, fathom”), Danish favn (“embrace, fathom”), Norwegian Bokmål favn (“embrace, fathom”), Swedish famn (“the arms, bosom, embrace”), Icelandic faðmur (“embrace”), Latin pate?, Ancient Greek ????????? (petánnumi), Ancient Greek ??????? (pétalos) [whence English petal].

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæð?m/

Noun

fathom (plural fathoms)

1. (obsolete) Grasp, envelopment, control.
2. (units of measure, now usually nautical) An English unit of length for water depth notionally based upon the width of grown man's outstretched arms but standardized as 6 feet (about 1.8 m).

   Synonyms: brace, (obsolete) stade, (Greek) orguia
3. (units of measure) Various similar units in other systems.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Acts 27:28:

     And sounded, and found it twentie fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded againe, and found it fifteene fathoms.

4. (figuratively) Depth of insight, mental reach or scope.

Translations

Verb

fathom (third-person singular simple present fathoms, present participle fathoming, simple past and past participle fathomed)

1. (transitive, archaic) To encircle with outstretched arms, especially to take a measurement; to embrace.
2. (transitive) To measure the depth of, take a sounding of.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To get to the bottom of; to manage to comprehend; understand (a problem etc.).

   Synonyms: fathom out, figure out, puzzle out, work out

Translations

Derived terms

• fathomable
• fathometer
• fathomless
• fathom out
• unfathomable

See also

• deep six

Further reading

• fathom in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fathom in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fathom at OneLook Dictionary Search
• fathom on Wikipedia.Wikipedia