Word.ws English Dictionary

felly

Syllables: fel·ly/ˈfɛli/

felly noun: the rim of a wooden wheel, supported by the spokes.

felly: the rim of a wooden wheel, supported by the spokes
Image: JonRichfield, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

felly (plural fellies)

  1. The rim of a wooden wheel, supported by the spokes.
    Synonyms:
    felloe
  2. Any of the several curved segments that constitute the rim.
    • all you Gods, / In generall Synod take away her power: / Breake all the Spokes and Fallies from her wheele […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • The felly harshed against the curbstone: stopped.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    felloe

Adverb

IPA/ˈfɛl.li/

felly (comparative more felly, superlative most felly)

  1. (archaic) Fiercely, harshly.
    • Ioues dreaded thunder light / Does scorch not halfe so sore, nor damned ghoste / In flaming Phlegeton does not so felly roste.1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi

Synonyms of felly

Forms of felly

Noun
pluralfellies
alternative formfelloe
alternative form (dialectal)fellick
alternative form (dialectal)felk
Adverb
comparativemore felly
superlativemost felly

Origin of felly

From Middle English fely, felow, felowe, felwe, felȝe, from Old English felg, from Proto-Germanic *felgō (compare Saterland Frisian feelge, Dutch velg, German Felge), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥ǵʰ- (compare Polish płoza (“sliding iron”), Old Church Slavonic пльзати (plĭzati, “to creep, crawl”)).

From Middle English felly, felli, fellich, equivalent to fell + -ly.

Questions about felly

What does felly mean?
Felly means the rim of a wooden wheel, supported by the spokes.
What part of speech is felly?
Felly can be a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce felly?
Felly is pronounced /ˈfɛli/.
What is the plural of felly?
The plural of felly is fellies.

Words near felly in the dictionary

  1. fellwalker
  2. fellwalkers
  3. fellwalking
  4. fellwort
  5. fellworts
  6. felly
  7. Felmersham
  8. Felmine
  9. Felmingham
  10. Felnac
  11. felo de se

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: felly (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-felly.wav.

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