fell

verb

1. (transitive)To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.

   “Stand, or I'll fell thee down.”

   “Sinclair opened Swansea's account from the spot on 8 minutes after a Ryan Shawcross tackle had felled Wayne Routledge.”

   “As southeast Asia's forests were felled, the rhino's habitat shrank and became fragmented.”

2. (transitive)To strike down, kill, destroy.

   “Gahan, horrified, saw the latter's head topple from its body, saw the body stagger and fall to the ground. ... The creature that had felled its companion was dashing madly in the direction of the hill upon which he was hidden, it dodged one of the workers that sought to seize it. … Then it was that Gahan's eyes chanced to return to the figure of the creature the fugitive had felled.”

   “"Even in his most temperate moments he is constantly felling people with a hunting-crop."”

   “… could make Ferré the first major fashion label felled by the economic crisis to come out the other end of restructuring.”

   “This Sunday marks the debut of Weiner, a documentary that follows former congressman Anthony Weiner in his attempt to overcome a sexting scandal and run for mayor of New York City—only to be felled, somewhat inexplicably, by another sexting scandal.”

3. To stitch down a protruding flap of fabric, as a seam allowance, or pleat.

   “To fell seam allowances, catch the lining underneath before emerging 1/4" (6mm) ahead, and 1/8" (3mm) to 1/4" (6mm) into the seam allowance.”

4. (form-of, past)simple past of fall
5. (colloquial, form-of, participle, past)past participle of fall

   “For I have heard that my Enemies have fell into that ſnare which they laid for mee. They which would have taken away my life have loſt their own;[…]”

   “I ſhould have fell overboard, or been killed by the enemy ; for having ſo many things to carry along with me, which I knew not how to uſe[…]”

   “Wayne who has fell in love with a female and decides to be married, then change his mind and don't want that.”

   “And when it got to ten past I said you must have fell in with company, but I was beginning to get worried.' 'You know I never fall in with company,' he protested irritably. 'I always leave the Royal at ten to, never a minute more nor less.'”

noun

1. A cutting-down of timber.
2. The stitching down of a fold of cloth; specifically, the portion of a kilt, from the waist to the seat, where the pleats are stitched down.
3. The end of a web, formed by the last thread of the weft.

   “Cut the first 2 warp ends in half and tie each pair together with an overhand knot, snug (but not tight) against the fell.”

4. (archaic, rare)Skin, hide, pelt.

   “For he is fader of feith · fourmed ȝow alle / Bothe with fel and with face.”

   “Why, we are still handling our ewes, and their fells, you know, are greasy.”

5. High and barren landscape feature such as a mountain range or mountain terrain above the tree line.
6. (Scotland)A rocky ridge or chain of mountains, particularly in the British Isles or Fennoscandia.

   “Every now and then the sea calls some farmer or shepherd, and the restless drop in his veins gives him no peace till he has found his way over the hills and fells to the port of Whitehaven, and gone back to the cradling bosom that rocked his ancestors.”

   “The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, While hammers fell like ringing bells, In places deep, where dark things sleep, In hollow halls beneath the fells.”

   “I got out and from where I stood, high at the head, I could see all of the strangely formed cleft in the hills, its steep sides grooved and furrowed by countless streams feeding the boisterous Halden Beck which tumbled over its rocky bed far below. Down there, were trees and some cultivated fields, but immediately behind me the wild country came crowding in on the bowl where the farmhouse lay. Halsten Pike, Alstang, Birnside—the huge fells with their barbarous names were very near.”

   “She didn't know at first why she stepped off the road and climbed the bank on to the fells; it wasn't until she found herself skirting a disused quarry that she realised where she was making for, and when she reached the place she stood and gazed at it. It was a hollow within an outcrop of rock, not large enough to call a cave but deep enough to shelter eight people from the rain, and with room to spare.”

   “So the noble prince proceeded undismayed up fells and screes, along narrow footpaths and ways where they were forced into single file, ledges on cliffs above lairs of water-monsters.”

7. (Scotland)A wild field or upland moor.

   “As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell;”

   “The night continued beautifully clear and fine, and as we came into the fell country the outlines of the hills showed up dark against the starlit sky.”

   “I remember the sudden drop in the note of the station bell, as we roar through, perhaps with 16 coaches; sweep up to milepost 9½, and then, with increasing thunder from the exhaust, fairly rush the fells at Milnthorpe at the foot of the climb to Grayrigg, until the steady thunderous beat re-echoes past Mosedale Hall, still at 40 m.p.h.”

   “And there are few better ways to enjoy the rugged bleakness of the fells than from a nice warm train, especially when the weather's constantly changing as the day slips away.”

   “An artist dubbed the Borrowdale Banksy has created this slate work on a Lake District fell after past efforts were vandalised.”

8. (obsolete, rare, uncountable)Anger; gall; melancholy.

   “Untroubled of vile fear or bitter fell.”

   “I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day. / What hours, O what black hoürs we have spent / This night!”

9. The finer portions of ore, which go through the meshes when the ore is sorted by sifting.
10. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of Fell pony.

    “Fells are usually pure black with no white markings, but bay, gray, and brown are also possible.”

11. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, uncountable)Ellipsis of Fell mountain railway system, named after John Barraclough Fell.

    “This line [the Snaefell Mountain Railway] is the world's only example of an electrically-operated railway with a Fell central rail.”

adj

1. Of a strong and cruel nature; eager and unsparing; grim; fierce; ruthless; savage.

   “one fell swoop”

   “[…]While we devise fell tortures for thy faults.”

   “And many a serpent of fell kind, / With wings before, and stings behind”

   “[…] but if it be solitary with the position of an incisor, will it even then bear out Professor Owen's hypothesis, that Thylacoleo, which he infers to have been one of “the fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts, […]”

   “The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.”

2. (Scotland, UK, dialectal)Strong and fiery; biting; keen; sharp; pungent
3. (Scotland, UK, dialectal)Very large; huge.
4. (obsolete)Eager; earnest; intent.

   “I am so fell to my business.”

adv

1. Sharply; fiercely.

name

1. A surname.
2. A township in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States.
3. A municipality in Trier-Saarland district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.