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A harsh scraping or cutting; a grating. The gride of hatchets fiercely thrown. On wigwam log, and tree, and stone. Whittier.

Of forbidding or fear-inspiring aspect; fierce; stern; surly; cruel; frightful; horrible. Whose grim aspect sets every joint a-shaking. Shak . The ridges of grim war. Milton.

In a grim manner; fiercely. Shak.

Fierceness of look; sternness; crabbedness; forbiddingness.

A fierce, intractable creature. I have loved this proud disdainful haggard. Shak.

genus Asilus, and allied genera, of which there are numerous species. They are large and fierce flies which capture bees and other insects, often larger than themselves, and suck their blood. Called also hawk fly, robber fly. -- To stir up a hornet's nest, to provoke the attack of a swarm of spiteful enemies or spiri…

An encounter; a battle. "Fierce hosting." Milton.

Very great; huge; vast; also, monstrous in character; inhuman; atrocious; fierce. [Obs.] "So immane a man." Chapman. -- Im*mane"ly, adv. [Obs.]

Bearing on; forcible; driving. [Obs.] He fiercely at him flew, And with important outrage him assailed. Spenser.

without significance, importance, or effect; to no purpose. "Anger insignificantly fierce." Cowper.

Internal; inward; -- opposed to external. Epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, Intestine stone and ulcers. Milton.

r used by horsemen and foot soldiers; now used chiefly in hunting the wild boar and other fierce game. Flies the javelin swifter to its mark, Launched by the vigor of a Roman arm Addison.

Eager; vehement; fierce; as, a keen appetite. "Of full kene will." Piers Plowman. So keen and greedy to confound a man. Shak.

g a knight; chivalrous; as, a knightly combat; a knightly spirit. For knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit. Spenser. [Excuses] full knightly without scorn. Tennyson.

narian system or condition; freedom of opinion in matters pertaining to religious belief. Fierce sectarianism bred fierce latitudinarianism. De Quincey. He [Ammonius Saccas] plunged into the wildest latitudinarianism of opinion. J. S. Harford.

Like a lion; fierce. [Obs.] Milton.

A person skilled in logic. Bacon. Each fierce logician still expelling Locke. Pope.

To let hang from the mouth, as the tongue. Fierce tigers couched around and lolled their fawning tongues. Dryden.

Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. Fierce o'er their beauty blazed the lurid flame. Thomson. Wrapped in drifts of lurid smoke On the misty river tide. Tennyson.

(d) To encounter; to be subjected to. Prepare to meet with more than brutal fury From the fierce prince. Rowe.