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Excessive devotion to one object or one idea; abject superstition; blind adoration. The real and absolute worship of fire falls into two great divisions, the first belonging rather to fetichism, the second to polytheism proper. Tylor.

A stipendiary estate in land, held of superior, by service; the right which a vassal or tenant had to the lands or other immovable thing of his lord, to use the same and take the profists thereof hereditarily, rendering to his superior such duties and services as belong to military tenure, etc., the property of the soi…

and is made dependent upon an obligation to render military service to the kind or feudal superior; feudal principles and usages.

A tenant or vassal who held his lands of a superior on condition of feudal service; the tenant of a feud or fief. The grantee . . . was styled the feudatory or vassal. Blackstone. [He] had for feudatories great princes. J. H. Newman.

An estate held of a superior on condition of military service; a fee; a feud. See under Benefice, n., 2.

to accompany the drum in military music. Fife major (Mil.), a noncommissioned officer who superintends the fifers of a regiment. -- Fife rail. (Naut.) (a) A rail about the mast, at the deck, to hold belaying pins, etc. (b) A railing around the break of a poop deck.

e relation of two or more magnitudes; a surface or space inclosed on all sides; -- called superficial when inclosed by lines, and solid when inclosed by surface; any arrangement made up of points, lines, angles, surfaces, etc.

Finished; brought to perfection; refined; hence, free from impurity; excellent; superior; elegant; worthy of admiration; accomplished; beautiful. The gain thereof [is better] than fine gold. Prov. iii. 14. A cup of wine that's brisk and fine. Shak. Not only the finest gentleman of his time, but one of the finest schola…

to be used in putting out fire. -- Fire master (Mil), an artillery officer who formerly supervised the composition of fireworks. -- Fire office, an office at which to effect insurance against fire. -- Fire opal, a variety of opal giving firelike reflections. -- Fire ordeal, an ancient mode of trial, in which the t…

ne end. It produces a shrill sound, softer than of the piccolo flute, and is said to have superseded the old recorder. Flageolet tones (Mus.), the naturel harmonics or overtones of stringed instruments.

he water as it trickles drop by drop into the tubes is immediately flashed into steam and superheated.

Light; superficially thin; not penetring deep, as soil. [Prov. Eng.] Mortimer.

A superior kind of earthenware into whose composition flint enters largely. Knight.

ood of light; a flood of lava; hence, a great quantity widely diffused; an overflowing; a superabundance; as, a flood of bank notes; a flood of paper currency.

The quality or characteristics of a flunky; readiness to cringe to those who are superior in wealth or position; toadyism. Thackeray.

point; a frailty. A disposition radically noble and generous, clouded and overshadowed by superficial foibles. De Quincey.

. Tales, legends, or superstitions long current among the people. Trench.

please for all me. Spectator. God's desertion shall, for aught he knows, the next minute supervene. Dr. H. More. For anything that legally appears to the contrary, it may be a contrivance to fright us. Swift.

Superiority; advantage; start; precedence. And, but for ceremony, such a wretch . . . Had the forehand and vantage of a king. Shak.

Ominous foreboding; superstitious prognostication. [Obs.] L'Estrange.