feeze

/fiːz/

feeze noun: a state of worry or alarm. Also the pronunciation spelling of freeze.

Noun

feeze (plural feezes)

(US, dialectal) A state of worry or alarm.
- All this time, they were chattering; but at last I thought, by the sound of their voices, that they must be walking away, and I never was in such a feeze in all my life, in case they should be gone before I could get up the wall ; and when I did get up it, sure enough, gone they was!1797, Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette, page 203
- “Don't git in a feeze, uncle Tib;—you can't help your head, I dare say;[…]”1825, John Neal, Brother Jonathan: or, The New Englanders, volume 2, page 85
(US, dialectal, also fetch one's feeze) A rush, impetus, or a violent impact; also, a rub.
- […]though you haue fetched your feaze, yet to looke well ere you leape.1577, Raphael Holinshed, quoting James Butler, “The thirde Booke of the Historie of Ireland, comprising the raigne of Henry the eyght”, in The firste [laste] volume of the chronicles of England...
- Dabscote no harme receiued by his fall
  But lightly vp himselfe againe doth rease,
  Fiue Almains streight they light vpon him all
  At once: and beare him downe with mightie feas.1592, William Wyrley, “Life of Lord Chandos”, in The true use of armorie shewed by historie, page 50
(Scotland, obsolete) A device for wedging items into a tight space.
- setting up the most expedient agricolary instruments of wains, carts, slades, with their several devices of wheels and axle-trees, plows and harrows of divers sorts, feezes, winders, pullies, and all other manner of engines fit for easing the toyl and furthering the work;1653, Sir Thomas Urquhart, Logopandecteision
- The Dean and assessors —unanimoslie condishended and agreied upon that ane compitent number of feezes be made for packing of pleding.1674, Proceedings: The Guildry Incorporation of Dundee

Verb (1)

feeze (third-person singular simple present feezes, present participle feezing, simple past and past participle feezed)

(dialectal, obsolete, often, transitive, also feeze away) To drive off or away; to make (someone) run, put to flight; to frighten away; compare faze.
- Gracious! what a hurly-burly 'twas! How the volks veased [gloss: Hurried, drove] out o' church—higgeldy piggeldy, helter skelter: zich jitting, [gloss: Pushing against each other], driving, and dringing. [gloss: Squeezing]1839, Mary Palmer, edited by Theophila Gwatkin, A Devonshire Dialogue, page 15
- A Vriday I went to winding [gloss: Winnowing], and took the Boy wi' me, to cry turr, [gloss: An expression used in driving pigs], and vease away the pigs from nuzzling in the corn[…]1839, Mary Palmer, edited by Theophila Gwatkin, A Devonshire Dialogue, page 30
(dialectal, transitive) To beat; to chastise.
- Come, will you quarrel? I will feeze you, sirrah.1610, Ben Johnson, The Alchemist
- [The characters are fighting.] Well:
  [He] has given me my Quietus est; I felt him
  In my small guts, I'm sure [he] has feez'd me:
  This comes of siding with you.1617, John Fletcher, “The Chances”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase...
(dialectal, intransitive, transitive) To cause to swing about.
- When stormy winter shook the trees,
  An' drumly dubs began to freeze,
  An' Christmas times brought bread an' cheese,
  An' routh o' whisky,
  Auld Carlo then his tail would feeze
  Sae keen an' frisky.1845, Alexander Smart, “Poor Carlo's elegy”, in Rambling rhymes, page 237
1. (dialectal, intransitive, transitive) To swing about in the wind; to flare (as a candle)
(dialectal, intransitive) To frighten, put into a state of alarm.
- Not that mothers should neglect children for husband, but that they might be quite as well off with less of your feezing and fussing, and he much the better with more of your affections.1859, Orson Squire Fowler, Matrimony: As Taught by Phrenology and Physiology, page 417
- he just did an honest day's work, each day, without worrying and "feezing" about the winter.1900, Washington News Letter, page 698

Verb (2)

feeze (third-person singular simple present feezes, present participle feezing, simple past and past participle feezed)

(Scotland, also, dialectal, transitive, on, up) To twist or turn with a screw-like motion; to screw.
- What pushing and crushing
  Amang the lads and lasses;
  What squeezing and feezing
  Wi' ilka ane that passes1825, James Bissett, An Attempt to delineate Ceres Fair
- For forty years—like Rob the Ranter, I've feezed about my rhymin' chanter' Blawn up the bag, and cock'd my bonnet, And tried to "croon an ault Scots sonnet,"1845, Charles Gray, A familiar epistle addressed to P. M'Leod, etc., page 4
(Scotland, broadly, dialectal, figuratively) To insinuate.
(Scotland, dialectal, intransitive, transitive) To untwist; to unravel, as the end of a thread or rope.
- In short, Tibbie made maist praiseworthy efforts to feeze her fingers oot o' my loof as lang as I held them fast.1864, William Duncan Latto, Tammas Bodkin: Or, The Humours of a Scottish Tailor, page 270
- The thread that joins us baith will sune Feeze oot and snap in twa!1875, Peter Whytock, The Skein O' 'Oo
Synonyms:

tease out, unsnarl, disentangle, unravel, untangle
(Scotland, dialectal, figuratively, obsolete, transitive) To rub hard; to do a piece of work with passion.

Also used as

feeze is also the pronunciation spelling of freeze.

Examples of feeze in a sentence

He was fresh from the office, where they told him he had drawn a—blank!—The smart beau sneaked off in a feeze, Crispin and his goods were sold out by the sheriff[…]1828 April 19, “For the Ariel”, in The Ariel, page 205:
Why what a feeze you air in, to be sure!2006, John Neal, Down Easters, page 134:
[…]as hee that leapeth forward fetcheth his feeze a great way backe[…]1636, Daniel Featley, chapter 62, in Clavis mystica: a key opening divers difficult and mysterious texts of Holy Scripture, page 826:
but you Republicans are so much accustomed to this uncertainty upon many other questions that it need not feeze you at all.1906, Congressional Record, page 4351:

Synonyms of feeze

All synonyms of feeze

Forms of feeze

Noun
plural	feezes
alternative form	fease
alternative form	feaze
alternative form	feese
alternative form	pheese
alternative form	pheeze
alternative form	phese
alternative West-Country	vease
alternative West-Country	veeze
Verb
third-person singular present	feezes
present participle	feezing
past participle	feezed
past	feezed
past	foze

Origin of feeze

From Middle English fese, from the verb (see below).

From Middle English fesen, from Old English fēsian, fȳsian (“to drive away, put to flight”), variants of fēsan, fȳsan (“to hasten, rush; to incite, stimulate, send forth, drive away”), of disputed origin. Doublet of faze.

From Scots feeze, from Old Scots fize (“screw”, noun), from Dutch vijs (“screw”), from Middle Dutch vise (“screw, windlass, winch”), from Old French vis, viz (“vise, vice”), from Latin vītis (“vine”). Doublet of vice, vise, and withe.

Words that rhyme with feeze

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about feeze

What does feeze mean?: Feeze means a state of worry or alarm.
How do you use feeze in a sentence?: He was fresh from the office, where they told him he had drawn a—blank!—The smart beau sneaked off in a feeze, Crispin and his goods were sold out by the sheriff[…]
What part of speech is feeze?: Feeze can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce feeze?: Feeze is pronounced /fiːz/.
What is the plural of feeze?: The plural of feeze is feezes.

Words near feeze in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: feeze (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “feeze.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/feeze. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.