Find the synonyms or antonyms of a word
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
- 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