▪ I. faze, v. orig. U.S.
(feɪz)
Also feaze (fiːz).
[Var. of dial. feeze v.1]
trans. To discompose, disturb.
| α 1830 Western Monthly Rev. III. 357 They were too well up to these things to be fazed by a little cold lead. 1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. xix. 174 This didn't faze me, only I steps back for my old camlit cloak. 1859 Harper's Weekly 16 July (Th.), Such a stomach that even a dram of nitric acid would not faze it. 1890 Dialect Notes (Boston, U.S.A.) Notes from Louisiana ii. 70 ‘You didn't faze him’ = you did not disturb him. 1890 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 22 July, This blow, altho' a fearful one, did not ‘faze’ me. 1953 F. Robb Sea Hunters ii. 17 Although Cope might be only a fishing skipper no gilded plutocrat was going to faze him. 1961 Coast to Coast 1959–60 89 Perrot became an anodized schoolmaster, a disciplinarian no boy could faze. 1963 ‘V. Lucas’ Bell Jar ii. 19 Walking has never fazed me. 1971 Listener 8 Apr. 435/2 It never really fazed me that much. I don't know why it didn't. |
| β 1906 Springfield Weekly Republ. 27 Dec. 1 The gentle⁓men at the head of the Standard oil trust will not be feazed or troubled a bit by these revelations. 1907 C. E. Mulford Bar-20 ix. 96 I've bit on so many of them rumours that they don't feaze me no more. 1916 ‘B. M. Bower’ Phantom Herd ix. 143 That..rather feazed the Happy Family for a few minutes. 1938 [see battle-axe 4]. |
▪ II. faze
obs. var. feaze v.