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Antonyms for feisty


Grammar : Adj
Spell : fahy-stee
Phonetic Transcription : ˈfaɪ sti



Definition of feisty

Origin :
  • 1896, "aggressive, exuberant, touchy," American English, with -y (2) + feist "small dog," earlier fice, fist (American English, 1805); short for fysting curre "stinking cur," attested from 1520s, from Middle English fysten, fisten "break wind" (mid-15c.); related to Old English fisting "stink," from Proto-Germanic *fistiz- "a fart," said to be from PIE *pezd- (see fart), but there are difficulties.
  • The 1811 slang dictionary defines fice as "a small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies charged on their lap-dogs." Cf. also Danish fise "to blow, to fart," and obsolete English aske-fise, "fire-tender," literally "ash-blower" (early 15c.), from an unrecorded Norse source, used in Middle English for a kind of bellows, but originally "a term of reproach among northern nations for an unwarlike fellow who stayed at home in the chimney corner" [OED].
  • adj spirited; touchy
Example sentences :
  • I get sort of feisty and want to dav-il her by makin' you look pretty.
  • Extract from : « The Power and the Glory » by Grace MacGowan Cooke
  • On an impulse he stepped up to the small man who began a grin of recognition, a grin that transformed his feisty face.
  • Extract from : « Mercenary » by Dallas McCord Reynolds

Synonyms for feisty

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019