fen

Noun (1)

fen (plural fens)

1. A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.
   • Near-synonyms: marsh, swamp, bog, mire
   • Bogs are acidic, nutrient poor, and have a low species diversity, whereas fens are less acidic and have higher nutrient levels and species diversity.1996, Geological Survey (U.S.), National Water Summary on Wetland Resources, →ISBN, page 214

   Synonyms:

   marsh, swamp, bog, mire

2. (broadly) Any swamp or mire (especially with negative connotations).
   • Caliban: As wicked dewe, as ere my mother bruſh'd / With Rauens feather from vnwholeſome Fen / Drop on you both : A Southweſt blow on yee, / And bliſter you all ore.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
   • Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant waters […]1807, William Wordsworth, "England, 1802," collected in Poems (1807)

Noun (2)

fen (plural fen or fens)

1. A unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan.
   • One poster, which appeared on the Barkhor on 20 May, ridiculed the way neighbourhood committees were recruiting participants: “We paid 30 fen for one stone, but you hire people for 30 yuan for the picnic in the Norbulingka” (“30 fen” — one hundred fen is one yuan — is a joking reference to Chinese...1994, Ronald David Schwartz, “[Martial Law and After] Symbolic competition”, in Circle of Protest: Political Ritual in the Tibetan Uprising, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited...

Noun (3)

fen

1. (slang) a plural of fan used by enthusiasts of science fiction, fantasy, and anime, partly from whimsy and partly to distinguish themselves from fans of sport, etc.
   • Sad to relate, some of the European delegates were probably insurgents rather than true fen. […] But the Europeans could be counted on to take the long view, and many of them would probably turn out to be real fen and fenne after all.1951 May 21, Winthrop Sargeant, “Through the Interstellar Looking Glass”, in Life, volume 30, number 21, page 127
   • So I’m glad the attached hotel block is entirely reserved for disabled fen! Traveling on mass transit is tiring even when everything’s up to code.2016 September 3, lurkertype, “Worldcon 75 Chair Responds”, in File 770, Comments

Noun (4)

fen (plural fens)

1. (Internet, informal, slang) A fennec fox.
   • Your fursona holding mine while she's arguing with some random person
     Like you're cradling the little fen & she's screaming out threats2018 December 30, @FENNERGY, Twitter
   • I always wondered why foxes go flat-ear mode whenever they are happy or screaming, very cute fen btw2022 September 15, “Fem”, in r/foxes, Reddit

Interjection

1. (obsolete) Used in children's games to prevent or forestall another player's action; a check or bar.

Noun (5)

fen (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) A kind of mildew that grows on hops.
   • […]whereby the ſtagnating ſap corrupts, and breeds mouldy fen, which often ſpoils whole tracts of, till then, flouriſhing hop-grounds.1769, The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry, 2nd edition, page 339
   • Among these are reckoned the wire worm; the flea, and the fly; the fen or mould; the mildew ; and what are usually called fire blasts.1808, Thomas Potts, The British Farmer's Cyclopaedia or, Complete Agricultural Dictionary, Scatcherd and Letterman, page 96

Proper noun capitalized: FEN

FEN

1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Forsyth–Edwards Notation