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Wild; untamed; savage; as, lions, tigers, wolves, and bears are ferine beasts. Sir M. Hale. -- n.

The name given to Europeans by the Hindos. [Written also Feringhee.]

Wildness; savageness; fierceness. [Obs.] Woodward.

A wonder; a marvel. [Obs.] Who hearkened ever such a ferly thing. Chaucer.

Rent for a farm; a farm; also, an abode; a place of residence; as, he let his land to ferm. [Obs.] Out of her fleshy ferme fled to the place of pain. Spenser.

Medicine; pharmacy. [Obs.] Chaucer.

That which causes fermentation, as yeast, barm, or fermenting beer.

Capability of fermentation.

Capable of fermentation; as, cider and other vegetable liquors are fermentable.

Fermentative. [Obs.]

The process of undergoing an effervescent change, as by the action of yeast; in a wider sense (Physiol. Chem.), the transformation of an organic substance into new compounds by the action of a ferment, either formed or unorganized. It differs in kind according to the nature of the ferment which causes it.…

which likens the course of certain diseases (esp. infectious diseases) to the process of fermentation, and attributes them to the organized ferments in the body. It does not differ materially from the accepted germ theory (which see).

Causing, or having power to cause, fermentation; produced by fermentation; fermenting; as, a fermentative process. -- Fer*ment"a*tive*ly, adv. -- Fer*ment"a*tive*ness, n.

The officer in a religious house who had the care of the infirmary. [Obs.]

The mechanism for closing the breech of a breech-loading firearm, in artillery consisting principally of the breechblock, obturator, and carrier ring.

A buckle or clasp. [Obs.] Donne.

Ancient; old. [Obs.] "Pilgrimages to . . . ferne halwes." [saints]. Chaucer.

A place for rearing ferns.

A freckle on the skin, resembling the seed of fern. [Prov. Eng.]

Abounding in ferns.