feelern.
/ˈfiːlə/, U.S. /ˈfilər/ 1. A person who feels an emotion; a person readily affected by emotion. Also: a person who experiences or is affected by something, esp. something unpleasant or damaging. Formerly also: †a person who understands something (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > [noun] > one who feels emotion
feeler1435
the mind > emotion > suffering > [noun] > sufferer
patientc1400
feeler1435
suffererc1450
sustainer1533
endurera1599
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > emotional perception > [noun] > one having emotional perception
feeler1435
resentera1639
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > experience > [noun] > one who experiences
feeler1435
pathica1640
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > emotional perception > [noun] > one having emotional perception > one who knows by own feelings
feeler1435
emotionalist1850
R. Misyn tr. R. Rolle Fire of Love 41 (MED) Slik swetnes of likynge hete & songe to a lufand saule is insched, how grete þe felar [L. senciens] may not tell.
a1450 in C. Horstmann Yorkshire Writers (1895) I. 174 (MED) Gastly wytte and vndyrstandynge is tauȝte of god be felyng, and naman may make a feler in gastly wytte bot god þat is þe gyfer.
1581 G. North tr. H. Estienne Stage Popish Toyes 93 She makes you hearers, and not feelers of these afflictions.
1611 H. Wotton Let. 2 Apr. in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1672) 399 Of my longing to see you, I am a better feeler than a describer.
?a1656 J. Poole Eng. Parnassus (1657) 394 One whom the Fates have markt to be A feeler of th' extreams of miserie.
1749 Ninth Let. Farmer to Electors Dublin 15 You cannot but be the Feelers of your own Duty and Impartiality.
1779 S. Johnson Let. 8 Nov. (1992) III. 211 If she be a feeler, I can bear a feeler as well as You.
1814 T. P. Thompson Exercises IV. 24 We are to be the main feelers of the consequences.
1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 207 He was not a strong thinker, but a sensitive feeler.
1912 J. H. Randall Culture of Personality 78 The ‘I’ or the Ego, who is always the Thinker of the thought, the Feeler of the feeling, the Actor of the act.
2005 T. K. Beal Roadside Relig. vii. 140 All who have met him describe him as a warm, deeply emotional, and sympathetic human being. He is a feeler.
2. A person who feels or perceives something by the senses, esp. by touch.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > [noun] > sentient being
feelerc1443
sensitive?1533
sentient1603
sensible1642
percipient1659
perceptive1694
the world > physical sensation > touch and feeling > [noun] > one who perceives by touch
feelerc1443
c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 245 (MED) Þei schulden signifie to vs silf or to þe oþere aboute stonding feelers þe þingis into whos signifiyng þei were ordeyned.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. UUUviii The smellers or felers therof.
?1576 A. Hall Let. touchyng Priuate Quarell sig. F.ii The vnmerciful sternenesse of the Northern Pole, as heauy to the inhabitaunte felers for extremity of the cold, as the parching sunne importable to the vggly Moores.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) i. vi. 102 This han, whose touch,..would force the Feelers soule To'th'oath of loyalty.
1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 47 All hearers deaf, all feelers numb.
1733 Daily Jrnl. 10 Mar. Feelers of Bubbies intolerable.
1778 Public Advertiser 13 May The Feeler of the Nation's Pulse has his Credit and Interest at Stake.
1817 F. Jeffrey & J. Gordon Craniad ii. 84 The skulls of all young clergy in the land Should be submitted to the feeler's hand.
1840 Tait's Edinb. Mag. 7 706 I was one of the best feelers of a silk that ever entered Snuggs' shop.
1909 G. C. Wellner in F. Curtiss-Wedge Hist. Goodhue County xix. 329 So long as a man sees in his physician only a feeler of pulses and a writer of prescriptions, [etc.].
2004 P. M. Williams Breast Cancer vii. 146 The reconstructed breasts..might feel good to the feeler, but there's no sensation for the ‘feelee’.
3.
a. Zoology. An elongated sensory organ present in various invertebrates, esp. arthropods, that typically occurs in pairs near the mouth and is involved in tactile perception of the immediate surroundings or in feeding; an antenna, a palp.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > [noun] > feeler
feeler1665
tentaculum1752
tentacle1764
feel horn1770
tactor1817
antennule1826
tentacule1835
1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 194 There are two other jointed and brisled horns, or feelers, in the forepart of the head.
1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acct. Wks. Nature iv. 55 They [sc. crabs] are wanting of those Antenæ, or Feelers, which we observe in Lobsters.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VII. 327 The ant-lion seizes it with its feelers, which are hollow.
1843 R. Owen Lect. Compar. Anat. Invertebr. Animals xiii. 155 The mouth [of the Cirripedia] is provided with a broad upper lip, with two palps or feelers.
1880 W. B. Carpenter in 19th Cent. No. 38. 617 Many of these are provided with enormously long and delicate feelers or hairs.
1953 K. von Frisch Dancing Bees 2 These feelers, present in all insects, reach simply gigantic dimensions in some species.
2008 New Yorker 28 July 80/2 A trilobitic bug scurries on at the start and waves its enormous feelers in our direction.
b. figurative. Something likened to an animal's feeler in respect of shape, function, or behaviour.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > touch and feeling > [noun] > something with which one feels or touches
tentaculum1752
feeler1796
tentacle1847
1796 M. Wollstonecraft Lett. Sweden, Norway & Denmark i. 3 Poor Marguerite, whose timidity always acts as a feeler before her adventuring spirit.
1839 New World 26 Oct. 1/6 The Erie Canal, and the branches and feelers, which, like the great marine polypus, it sends out right and left.
1865 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire (new ed.) VIII. lxvi. 235 Her ships were the feelers with which she touched on Greece and Italy.
1874 J. S. Blackie On Self-culture 61 [Atheists] can..fasten their coarse feelers upon nothing but what they can finger.
1927 V. Woolf To Lighthouse i. iv. 32 She kept a feeler on her surroundings lest someone should creep up.
1990 L. de Bernières War Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts viii. 56 In places the jungle began to reclaim the land: it crept slowly and unsurely..sending out tendrils and feelers.
2012 H. Beaumont Toward Spiritual Psychotherapy 177 We stretch out the feelers of our own soul and search in our mother or father's inner self.
c. slang. The hand. Also (usually in plural): the finger.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > limb > extremities > hand > [noun]
handeOE
cleche?c1225
fista1300
dallea1500
clutcha1529
gripea1555
famble1567
claw1577
golla1586
patte1586
manus1598
pickers and stealers1604
fore-foota1616
pud1654
daddle?1725
fin1785
mauley1789
feeler1825
maniple1829
flipper1832
flapper1834
grappler1852
duke1874
mitt1893
1825 Edinb. Observer 8 Mar. 3/3 Paddy was a perfect Longimanus: his feelers being about the dimensions of a couple of ordinary flails.
1831 E. J. Trelawny Adventures Younger Son II. xxiv. 200 Bah!.. a feeler or two smashed and jammed together.
1877 W. H. Thomson Five Years' Penal Servitude 259 In a week or two a man can bring his hooks and feelers into full working trim again.
1916 P. MacGill Great Push xi. 145 ‘Not a word now,’ said Teake, fixing one eye on me and another on the hen. ‘I must get my feelers on this 'ere cackler.’
1966 L. B. Kenney Caste of Heroes viii. 79 Your feelers are still like dead timber!
1989 M. Amis London Fields xx. 401 Keith felt the soft arrival of sweat on the palms of his feelers.
4.
a. A component of a machine or device which controls or regulates some aspect of its operation through coming into or breaking contact with other components.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > manufacture of textile fabric > [noun] > weaving > method of > weaving other types of fabric > loom or machine for > parts of
feeler1755
batten1831
pile wire1849
cross-shed1874
1755 J. Smeaton in Philos. Trans. 1754 (Royal Soc.) 48 605 The top of the lever is furnish'd with an appendage which I call the feeler.
1854 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 2 June 485/2 A pointer or feeler is so connected, by means of a horizontal bar, with a graver.
1927 T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk: Manuf. & Uses 131 When the weft is nearly exhausted in the shuttle, an electric circuit is completed; this causes a single feeler under the circular magazine to move a control lever.
2009 J. R. Shannon Understanding Pipe Organ iv. 50 A bar of copper or phospher [sic] bronze..intersects a set of feelers made of silver or gold wire.
b. A device for ascertaining the dimensions of a space through coming into contact with the bounding surface; esp. a gauge consisting of thin metal strips of different known thicknesses, used to measure narrow gaps or clearances (more fully feeler gauge).
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > measuring instrument > [noun] > for determining or verifying dimensions > for narrow gaps
wedge-micrometer1891
feeler1919
slip gauge1919
Jo block1936
1919 Motor Boating Jan. 23/2 A thickness gauge or feeler is the only other requirement to determine the place and position of the bend.
1931 D. Garnett Grasshoppers Come 6 Wright was tracing out the cause of an intermittent miss on the starboard magneto of a Gipsy engine and was toying with a pair of feeler gauges.
1936 Pop. Mech. May 657 This horseshoe shaped frame with its spring wire 'feelers' gauges the size of the tunnels.
1967 E. Chambers Photolitho-offset xv. 231 The lock nuts and adjusting screws are released in order that, for example, a 0·006 in. feeler can just be inserted between the bearers on both sides of the cylinders.
2002 Fine Woodworking Mar. 71/3 A business card works well as a feeler gauge to measure the gap.
5.
a. A tentative proposal, hint, or question put forward in order to ascertain another's opinions or intentions, or to elicit information. Frequently in to put out feelers and variants.peace feeler: see peace n. Compounds 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > [noun] > an experiment > proposal or project to test attitudes
feeler1823
ballon d'essai1858
to fly a kite1902
trial balloon1939
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > interrogation > [noun] > sounding out > instrument of
sounder1587
voice-asker1593
draw1811
feeler1823
leader1882
1823 Republican 30 May 699 As we have seen no public notice of any such an intention as it professes; we presume that it may be viewed as a feeler.
1827 Cobbett's Weekly Reg. 16 June 707/1 It being manifestly a feeler, put forth..with the approbation..of the members both of the Bank and the Government.
1858 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (ed. 2) III. xv. 273 Cromwell had thrown out feelers in the various European courts.
a1885 ‘H. Conway’ Living or Dead (1886) I. v. 68 ‘It will cost a great deal if I fit them up as I like,’ I said as a feeler.
1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 30 May 6/3 The project has gone no further than the feeler circular.
1913 E. C. Bentley Trent's Last Case vi. 134 He wondered how much Mr. Bunner knew of the domestic difficulty in his chief's household, and decided to put out a feeler.
1964 R. Gover Here goes Kitten 13 I slyly interjected the following feeler concerning my report: ‘Anything you'd care to discuss at dinner, Mr. Pennypacker’?
2009 Townsville (Queensland) Bull. (Nexis) 8 Oct. 43 We've obviously put out a few feelers, we're just waiting on information coming back.
b. Military (now historical). A soldier, esp. a member of the light cavalry, sent out ahead of a main force in order to gather information about, or test the strength of, the enemy; a scout. Also: a detachment of such soldiers. Cf. feel v. 15.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier with special duty > [noun] > guide, scout, etc.
waitc1325
runnera1382
scourera1400
exploratorc1429
discovererc1440
waiter?1473
out-spy1488
scurrier1488
aforeridera1525
fore-rider1548
guide?1548
outscourer1548
scout1555
vanquerer1579
outscout1581
outskirrer1625
scouter1642
scoutinger1642
wood-ranger1734
reconnoiterer1752
feeler1834
1827 R. Chambers Hist. Rebellion Scotl. I. xix. 208 A small body of the lighter horse was selected to scour the country for intelligence, and to act as the antennæ or feelers of the marching army.]
1834 Mil. & Naval Mag. U.S. Jan. 284 This protrusion of his feelers, or scouts, into our very faces, showed that he had a mind to stick by us.
1862 H. E. Barstow Rep. 10 Nov. in War of Rebellion (U.S. War Dept.) (1885) 1st Ser. XIII. 356 I then sent out feelers to learn, if possible, their strength.
1876 G. E. Voyle & G. de Saint-Clair-Stevenson Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) 69/2 The duties of cavalry are very extensive on service, comprising the care of reconnoitring parties, outpost duties, feelers in advance of an army.
1900 A. Conan Doyle Great Boer War xiii. 212 On some [days] they sent a little feeler of cavalry and guns out of the town.
1920 M. B. Stewart & W. H. Waldron Thirty-minute Talks 227 They are the feelers sent out for the purpose of compelling the enemy's infantry and machine gunners to open fire and disclose their location.
2002 P. Ashdown & E. Caudill Mosby Myth ii. 58 Lee had his cavalry feelers out below the Rapidan River, probing for Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's advancing Federals.
c. Horse Racing. A race run in order to test a horse's speed, stamina, fitness, etc.; a trial race. Also: a test of a horse's ability to keep pace with another during a race. Occasionally also in extended use in other sporting contexts. Frequently in to take a feeler.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > racing or race > horse racing > [noun] > types of racing > types of race
wild-goose race1594
wild goose chase1597
bell-course1607
Palio1673
stake1696
paddock course1705
handicap1751
by-match1759
pony race1765
give and take plate1769
sweepstake1773
steeplechase1793
mile-heat1802
steeple race1809
welter1820
trotting-race1822
scurry1824
walkover1829
steeple hunt1831
set-to1840
sky race1840
flat race1848
trot1856
grind1857
feeler1858
nursery1860
waiting race1868
horse-trot1882
selling plate1888
flying milea1893
chase1894
flying handicap1894
prep1894
selling race1898
point-to-point1902
seller1922
shoo-in1928
daily double1930
bumper1946
selling chase1965
tiercé1981
1858 Bell's Life in London 24 Oct. 5/6 Cantab,..like an old jockey, went to his opponent's head as if to take a ‘feeler’.
1863 Daily News 9 Oct. 7/2 A mile from home Gibraltar went alongside Isoline and took a ‘feeler’.
1866 Baily's Monthly Mag. Apr. 176 It is possible that those noblemen and their companions heard nothing..about..‘Priam being run for a “feeler”’.
1883 Standard 21 May 2/1 Osborne, journeyed from Manchester..with the express purpose of having a ‘feeler’ on Mr. Adrian's colt.
1905 Horse Rev. 8 Aug. 884/2 He was searched for this half to see whether he still had his speed and as a ‘feeler’ for the relay race.
1924 Times 23 June 6/6 At one mile Harper [i.e. an athlete]..jumped into the lead and took a ‘feeler’ before dropping back into fifth or sixth.
2007 Racing Post (Nexis) 2 June 110 It would be stretching things to say Oh So Saucy ran an eyecatching race..but it did have the look of a feeler.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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